Demon Marcus, Monday

[that_oldsaying]

There'd been a lot of sad things yesterday and a lot of tears and Alluka wasn't very good at thinking over the things that made her that upset.

Which meant that today, when she'd gotten up, she had borrowed Mabel's wagon for Waddles (with permission!) and stuffed as many of her toys into it as she could and then made the trek to work with them all. It had taken a while, since her toys liked to hop down from the wagon and explore the area (a lot of them had never been outside at all) but eventually she got herself, the wagon, and her pile of toys to Demon Marcus.

They wound up scattered all over the place--they were playing hide-and-seek with each other--while Alluka tried her best to remember all the right ways to open up the store.

Once that was done, she went and found a tiara and propped it on her head, and then went and joined the giggling game of hide-and-seek with her toys.

They never made her sad.

Demon Marcus is Open!

Comments

Mod Your Shopping

[that_oldsaying]

If you wish!

Talk to Alluka

[that_oldsaying]

Or to one of her many, many toys hanging around.

Re: Talk to Alluka

[rebelseekspizza]

Yeah, Dante hadn't actually wanted to spend the first bucks off of Kathy's money on whatever she'd actually intended for him to buy - which was why he'd had a greasy pizza at Pizza Planet before coming here.

He did badly need new shirts, though. Again. So he was just gonna...

... okay, he thought, as he stepped into the store. Maybe he was just going to use his own money. Screw that. "Yo?"

Re: Talk to Alluka

[that_oldsaying]

The first thing Dante pretty much had to notice in the store was the near army of stuffed toys today.

Some of them were better at hiding than others. Her flower-baby was invisible behind a rack of scarves, but there was no hiding her dinosaur, though it tried, behind a rack of sunglasses.

Some, like her bunny and Mr. Bubbles weren't even trying. They were holding court on the counter, with tea cups set up between them.

Alluka, who was wriggling along the ground in the formal wear section, looking for her plushie of Killua didn't hear Dante's 'yo'.

Re: Talk to Alluka

[rebelseekspizza]

... Oh, right. She had shift today.

Dante made the world's most uncommitted attempt not to pull a face, and then just pulled a face.

"Didn't realize we had a freaking zoo on the island," he said, projecting his voice louder. "Alluka, right?"

Re: Talk to Alluka

[that_oldsaying]

There was a thump and then a bunch of giggling followed as Alluka scrambled out from under one of the racks, clutching yet another toy. (It looked like one of her brothers, white hair, blue eyes, and everything.)

She heard him this time and, since Sparkle had told her she had to talk to people when they came to the store, she went to see--

Oh.

It was the guy who didn't like princesses.

"Do we really have a zoo on the island?" she asked, missing the part where he'd been talking about her toys. "Hi. It's Alluka."

She was smiling, but it was... not nearly as chipper as she'd been last time. Alluka hadn't had the time yet to stuff all the bad feelings away perfectly again.

Re: Talk to Alluka

[rebelseekspizza]

Yeah. Dante knew that not-so-fresh not-so-chipper feeling. Some other week, it might've made him soften his tone, too.

"We didn't have one before, but you sure as hell made one," he said, nodding at the toys.

Re: Talk to Alluka

[that_oldsaying]

She looked at her toys for a moment, then back at him.

"I have more in my... my room," Alluka shared, since he seemed to think this was a lot. "But they didn't all fit in the wagon."

She'd tried.

Re: Talk to Alluka

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante eyed her. "Why would you drag all of your stuffed animals all the way up here?" he said.

It was freaking weird.

Hell, it was freaking weird she had this many stuffed animals to begin with. What was she, five?

Re: Talk to Alluka

[that_oldsaying]

Her family would have liked if she'd stayed five forever, actually. They were easier to control.

Alluka blinked at him, this time for a few moments, before she said, "I wanted them here."

It was the truth.

"They make me happy."

Not that she looked it right now, not really, which was all the more reason to have them with her.

Re: Talk to Alluka

[rebelseekspizza]

Right. There'd been something on radio, and Alluka knew-- well, it didn't really matter anymore.

"Right," Dante said. Out loud this time. "Well, you gotta work, too. I need to buy shit."

Ringo. She'd gone to talk to Ringo, too. Yeah, that'd be enough to put anyone in a mood.

Re: Talk to Alluka

[that_oldsaying]

Alluka flinched, just a little, because actually working was--well, it was a work in progress.

It was so much easier to play games and Sparkle didn't seem to mind.

"Okay," she said, looking at her toes. "What do you need. Do, do you need more shirts?"

What even did he do with them?

Re: Talk to Alluka

[rebelseekspizza]

Get kidnapped by demons and have his chest perforated on the regular.

"Yeah," Dante said. "You remember which ones I got last time, right?"

He saw the flinch. He was watching her pretty closely in general. It still didn't soften his tone any.

Re: Talk to Alluka

[rhymeswithtable.livejournal.com]

Okay, so Mabel had been a little bit worried about Alluka since last night, and a little bit more this morning, when she'd loaned the other girl her wagon so that she could take as many toys as she could fit into work with her today. She was at least dimly aware that there had been bad news floating around lately, and between that and graduation, well, she figured it was safe to assume that Alluka could use a pick-me-up. And even if she didn't need one, hey, she'd take any excuse to hang out with her bestie, so...!

"Incoming," Mabel called, peering into the clothing store, "and I come bearing gifts!"

Gifts of Mooby's burgers and fries, and milkshakes. The essentials.

Re: Talk to Alluka

[that_oldsaying]

They were excellent essentials! Especially if the milkshakes were chocolate. Or strawberry. Or vanilla.

Alluka liked all three.

She was no longer playing hide-and-seek, but was sitting on the counter with her bunny in her lap, and thinking.

She blinked when Mabel came in. "Oh," she said, smiling. "Hi, Mabel!"

... That was a subdued greeting, from Alluka.

Re: Talk to Alluka

[rhymeswithtable.livejournal.com]

Oh, jeeze. The smile was great, but Mabel wasn't completely sold on it, either. She wasn't going to call Alluka out on it or anything... but she was going to make her way over and jump up to join her on the counter before passing her a milkshake.

Chocolate, of course!

"I thought I would bring you some food," she explained. "Since sharing is caring, and all."

Re: Talk to Alluka

[that_oldsaying]

"Thank you, Mabel!" she said, taking the milkshake and smiling again. "I forgot to bring food, so this is great. Did you get stuff for you too?"

Alluka offered Mr. Bubbles to Mabel, so she'd have a toy to hold too. Alluka had her bunny today.

Re: Talk to Alluka

[rhymeswithtable.livejournal.com]

Aww, hi, Mr. Bubbles! Mabel gave him a little wave hello and a grin before taking him and setting him in her lap.

He was not a small giraffe, but she'd manage.

"There's plenty for both of us," Mabel confirmed, waving her own milkshake around and taking a sip before starting to rummage through the bag. "So, how's work going today? It looks like you and your friends are all having a good time."

Re: Talk to Alluka

[that_oldsaying]

He wasn't the biggest of her toys, even!

"It's okay," she said, since... okay was about all it was today. "They're playing hide and seek right now. I was playing, but Dante came by, so I had to work and after that... I didn't want to."

Re: Talk to Alluka

[rhymeswithtable.livejournal.com]

So there was Mabel, peering at Alluka around a giraffe and a milkshake as she offered her a cheeseburger.

"No? Was it a bad visit?"

Mabel didn't know Dante all that well. Well enough to know that he was quite a treat to look at, sure, but beyond that...

"He wasn't rude to you, was he?"

Because Mabel also was not above earning herself a detention by trying to break somebody's teeth. Just sayin'.

Re: Talk to Alluka

[that_oldsaying]

Alluka giggled a little, as she took her cheeseburger and unwrapped it.

"He's always kind of grumpy," she admitted. "And he doesn't like princesses."

Which was a huge black mark against him, just saying.

"But, no. No, he wasn't mean. He just said some things that are sad."

Re: Talk to Alluka

[rhymeswithtable.livejournal.com]

Well... maybe Mabel wouldn't have to knock his block off after all.

"Sad?" She frowned for a moment, and then set her milkshake down and turned a bit so that she could face Alluka a little better. "Did something sad happen?"

Re: Talk to Alluka

[that_oldsaying]

Alluka chewed on the tip of her straw as she thought about that. It wasn't that she didn't know it was sad, it was that there were a lot of different sad things all tangled up in her mind.

"Did, did you know that people lose their rooms here?" she settled on, as a start. It wasn't what most people would call the saddest thing, but it was the saddest thing to Alluka. "That... that they graduate and then their rooms don't belong to them anymore? Like someone takes their homes away from them."

Re: Talk to Alluka

[rhymeswithtable.livejournal.com]

Mabel blinked a little. Did she know...?

And then she tilted her head a bit, processing.

"I... knew, yeah. When people aren't using them anymore, when we don't need them anymore, they become somebody else's. But so long as you're a student here, you have a room. They wouldn't expect students at the school to not have a place to live, you know?"

He idly reached for a lock of her hair, and then fidgeted with it a little.

"You didn't know that?"

OOC

[that_oldsaying]

Mondays always come too fast.