fandomtownies | Demon Marcus, Sunday

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Demon Marcus, Sunday

When he stepped through his portal today onto the island, it had actually taken Sparkle a few minutes to be absolutely certain that he was in the right place. Sure, the streets were laid out the same, but he'd almost been run over by the most horrifying rickshaw on the planet while he was busy staring up at the airships drifting lazily overhead.

And then, deciding it was one of those weird-ass weekends it was better he not let himself worry about, he made his way to the Demon Marcus.

... Where, of course, his key wouldn't fit in the door's lock, because why the hell would it? When he'd finally managed to pick the damn thing with a mangled paperclip from his bag and he stepped inside, it took him a few minutes to figure out how to turn on the lights, but all the effort and confusion had absolutely been worth it.

He gasped. All of the clothing was a costumer's dream come true, and it was possible that he was going to be spending just as much time trying things on today as he was going to be spending serving customers. By the time anybody showed up to shop, he was already decked out in an outfit that made him feel like some cross between a magician and a rockstar, and was quite happy to continue on trying on hats with increasing amounts of extraneous cogwork crap stuck on just for giggles.

[OOC: Heat exhaustion knocked me out pretty much all yesterday, oops. Have a normal Sparkle enjoying the heck out of this event, instead.]

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After he'd closed the store for the day and had some lunch, Hernando made his way to Demon Marcus. Sparkle had said it was open on Sunday and he thought to check up on his friend.

A look around inside made him halt just inside the door with a small, impressed, "Well!"

"Well, right?" Sparkle perked up from where he was poking through a selection of very fine silk vests indeed, waving a cheerful hello to Hernando. "Hey, Hernando! How great is this??"

His stock was awesome today, okay.

"You remember me?" Hernando was a little surprised and relieved, "Everyone is acting so strange this weekend." Another look around the shop and he confirmed, "This is very great, Sparkle. I take it this is not what your shop looked like on Friday also? The tea shop has been quite transformed."

"Your pictures didn't change, though. They're still on the walls."

Sparkle gave a delighted little laugh and a clap of his hands at that news.

"Oh man, the island likes them too?" He grinned as he stepped out from behind the racks, reaching up to doff his top hat in an exaggerated gesture of welcome. "I just showed up for work today and the whole place was like this. I mean, once I managed to break into my own shop, it was actually pretty awesome. I don't think I've seen this much silk and velvet in one place in my life."

Hernando chuckled at Sparkle's delight. "Either the island or the store. I am not certain which controls anything this weekend. I, too, showed up for work yesterday to find everything changed, and the store insisted I wear appropriate clothing." He picked at his shirt and shrugged, "I do not mind. It has been very strange, seeing other people dressed up and..acting?"

He cast a speculative look around the shop, perhaps a little covetous. "Do you think it will last if I take it home, or would I have modern clothing when this change is over - if it is, eventually, over?"

Hernando had seen this much silk and velvet in many places through his life. He appreciated fine clothing.

"It isn't usually acting," Sparkle offered. "When stuff like this happens, people can spend a whole weekend living life like this is how it's always been. Hasn't anybody mentioned anything about that, yet? Just... weird weekends where everyone and everything just kind of shifts a little bit?"

He was going to have to find everyone Hernando had ever spoken to on the island and smack each and everyone of of them, if not. Honestly, now.

He glanced around the shop after that, considering.

"You know... I have no idea," he admitted. "Sometimes it does, and if it doesn't, I haven't had anyone ever come back complaining that whatever they bought disappeared, so it's worth a try anyway." He glanced back again. "If it changes, you can totally just let me know on Wednesday and I'll give you a refund. I mean, this stuff is too great to not try."

... He maybe had a small pile already started for himself.

"No, nobody has mentioned that. I was told that sometimes awful things happen, but that is also true of any city. This, though," Hernando looked around and smiled, "is most truly not awful. I feel a little left out, remembering how it was on Friday and knowing the difference."

"It is, as you say, worth a try," he murmured, eyes fixed speculatively on a coat with antique gold embroidery.

Sparkle followed his gaze, and then grinned and stepped over to it, pulling it off the rack and offering it out to him with a grin. Hey, even if he didn't end up buying it, it was worth trying on.

"It isn't all things trying to eat you and murder carnivals," he said, maybe a touch too lightly, there. "Sometimes it's annoying stuff, like the island decides that today it wants to rain pudding, or... hell, just all of December is usually pretty whimsical. You haven't drank Coke until you've had an ice cold bottle of it handed to you by a polar bear."

Oh, Fandom.

"Aaand sometimes, you get stuff like this," he continued. "I guess this weekend everyone is... Victorian... steam-powered... I don't even know what was up with that rickshaw out there, that was a little creepy. Some weekends, people are just... other people. No rhyme or reason. Sometimes the men turn into women, or the women turn into men, or everyone turns into little kids or ages twenty years. It's all pretty harmless, it tends to wear off on Monday, and the worst most people walk out of it with is maybe a little bit of embarrassment."

Hernando took the coat and slid into it, looking down at himself speculatively. It was a tad too large, but it could be tailored. Easier to cut down than to add. He held his arms out in a gesture that invited Sparkle's opinion.

"I think I would not enjoy a murder carnival. That sounds unpleasant," Hernando threw his hat in the ring for 'understatement of the week' award. "The rest sounds rather pleasant. Truly, it would be a unique experience to enjoy life from a different perspective. Especially if it were only such a brief glimpse."

Sparkle pursed his lips as he considered the coat, and walked a lap around Hernando, reaching and gathering fabric in his hands here and there, eyeballing it from every angle and speculating about how he might go about improving on the coat as a whole.

"I like it on you," he decided. "I think it can even be brought in without losing most of the needlework."

He was silent for another moment before just kind of settling on maybe not expanding on the murder carnival. He had died there. It hadn't been a great time.

"I spent one of those 'different perspective' weekends as a magical pink pegasus named Sparkleface," he offered, because that was way more interesting than the weekend he'd spent as a box of Japanese dishwasing detergent. "That was a good time. And it wasn't even like those weekends where everyone just turns into ponies, either. Usually when that happens, we're ponies and we know it's weird."

So, that was a whole bunch of words strung together for you there, Hernando.

"I think I also like it on me," Hernando confessed, sliding back out of it, "Are you able to make alterations, or is there somewhere you would recommend?" He sounded hopeful about that first part.

His eyes went very wide at the description, then he smiled and said, "You would make a very handsome pink pegasus. Are there pictures?" He hoped there were. That sounded adorable.

Weekends where everyone turned into ponies. Hernando made a mental note that, when that weekend happened, he should promptly go find a gaggle of teenage girls. Teenage girls, all the ones he'd ever met, went through a phase of absolute obsession with ponies, and if he had to be one, he would like to be surrounded by people who cosseted him and fed him treats.

"I can do those here," Sparkle replied easily. "There's an antique sewing machine in here that I've been dying to try all day, oh my god."

It was kind of gorgeous, and assuming it didn't mess up his stitches or anything, he was going to be sad to see it change back on Monday.

"And you know, there are probably pictures? But I can't imagine there are many phones that have survived this weekend. I'll try to remember if anyone was in their right mind enough to take incriminating evidence or not and ask around when things are back to normal, though."

"Excellent," Hernando all but purred, reaching for a green and brown embroidered waistcoat next. This style of clothing was, as the kids these days said, his total jam. "Is there anything you think might look particularly well on me? I wouldn't mind suggestions."

The comment about pictures gave him pause, "Incriminating, how? Were you eating someone's flower garden or something?"

Sparkle considered Hernando, and then the stock, and then leaned in to go poking through the waistcoats himself.

Because waistcoats were hot.

"I don't think I was eating anybody's flower garden," he noted. "But I'm reasonably certain there was a friendship song involved somewhere in there."

Hernando couldn't read the meta but would entirely agree. Because waistcoats were hot. So were cravats. Anyone who thought otherwise had no taste at all.

"Photography, embroidery, sewing, and now singing?" Hernando smiled at him, "Is there anything you don't do?"

"Oh, I do it all if I get a chance to," Sparkle laughed. "Whether or not I do it well is a completely different thing, but set me up in a karaoke bar and you've got to pry the mic away, swear to god."

"Is there one here on the island?" Hernando asked, trying on a dove gray waistcoat that almost matched his shirt. "I haven't quite made it to all of the shops yet."

"Caritas does Karaoke up on their stage," he offered. "The band takes a little, uh, getting used to? But they keep a decent beat, anyway. Mostly I don't get to play around with Karaoke unless I'm visiting my friend Minako in Tokyo. And then it's just... crazy nightlife shopping party stupidity to make up for all the time in between, you know?"

Sparkle considered the waistcoat, and then nodded his approval. That one fit better than the coat had, at that.

"I do not, myself, sing," Hernando said, "I enjoy listening to others."

Lies. He sang. He sang rather well. He just did not sing in front of other people except in certain situations. A bar full of people was not such a situation.

The waistcoat went into the 'yes' pile. He pursed his lips and considered a rack of trousers.

Sparkle, meanwhile, was skipping right over to the cravats. Because if there was one thing a waistcoat like that needed, it was a goddamn cravat.

"Well, maybe I'll have to drag you out for karaoke sometime anyway," he decided. "You don't have to sing unless the mood strikes you, but it's usually a pretty good time, even if you don't. It's just a bunch of people having fun and not caring about what anyone thinks, you know?"

"To Tokyo or Caritas?" Hernando asked, "Tokyo would be quite a long trip, I imagine, though perhaps shorter by portal." He smiled a little, still examining the trousers. "I would be up for either, as long as I could have the promise you would not ply me with liquor and convince me I should try to sing."

"Cross my heart," Sparkle said, drawing a little X on his chest with his free hand while the other one held up a cravat, bright white and edged in handmade lace. "Just so long as you don't mind if I ply myself with liquid courage and get up there and make a total ass of myself once or twice. Either here on the island or in Japan, whichever. I've got to portal hop either way, myself."

"Hm. With the gray or do you think a darker waistcoat to make that really pop?" Hernando asked, examining the cravat.

"I would not mind you drinking, though it would be a shame if you became too inebriated. I would hate to have conversations you would not remember the next day," Hernando said.

Sparkle considered the cravat for a moment, and then shrugged and started looking through the waistcoats again. Because he'd happily shove like eight of them at Hernando and demand a fashion show right here in the shop, so help him.

"Oh, when I'm out with friends, it isn't the hard stuff," he promised. "It's, like, drinks with names that want to pretend they sound tropical and don't look complete unless you add like glitter or whipped cream."

The hard stuff, he saved for other occasions. Certain types of parties. Hard evenings where he was avoiding everything but trouble...

"I enjoy drinks with fruit in them or little umbrellas," Hernando said with no trace of shame, "They're fun, often pretty and I am usually able to wake up without a terrible headache the next day."

He walked over to stand behind and slightly to the side of Sparkle, looking at the selection over his shoulder.

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