Outside the Demon Marcus, Monday Morning

[always_someone]

Norman had just wanted to go for a walk. That was all. He'd had a bunch of stupid little extra legs for far too long now, and he'd managed to get an impressive amount of things done in that amount of time, between selling dance tickets - twice - and apparently being crowned Junior Homecoming Prince as a crab.

So, he was pretty sure he could handle taking a walk. Even with the stairs. What were a few stairs, right? Even if you were basically palm-sized and all.

Okay, the going was perhaps a little more slow than he'd hoped it might be. He wasn't very far into town yet at all when - pop! - he went from being a crab on some stairs to a very naked boy on the stairs, full of the panic that being a very naked boy on the stairs generally entailed.

He froze. He looked around with wide eyes. And then he bolted toward the clothing shop, not exactly with a plan in mind. Just, there were clothes in there. And, since it was apparently too early for it to be open yet today, in there was where they were likely to stay.

... Unless he could find a window or something.

[OOC: For one in particular, please, though open streets are totally open, naturally!]

Comments

[died8yearsago]

Generally, Rosa felt it was just a better idea to ignore most of the calls that came into the station from so-called 'concerned citizens,' especially when those calls came in practically before she'd even poured herself a cup of coffee, but this one seemed to actually have some merit.

Naked kid in the street trying to bust into some shop? Yeah, she definitely was going to take that one, she needed a good laugh today.

And that was...exactly what she found, too, and she was just going to give him a second to keep trying to sweat it out (clearly, this kid was not in her class), because Rosa was mean.

But before it less about embarrassing the poor kid and more just weird, she was going to very pointedly and very loudly clear her throat.

[always_someone]

"Crap."

Did Norman jump a little? Yes. Yes, Norman absolutely jumped a little, and then went through an interesting series of thoughts that included, 'run,' 'hide,' and 'put up your hands?'

But that last one was very much not happening. And running naked through the streets some more didn't seem like a great time, either. So that mostly left him kind of yelping and jumping behind a garbage can, so that he could have more than just his hands to try to cover himself with.

Much like getting stepped on and spending all eternity as a squashed ghost crab had sounded like a horrible way to go at Homecoming, dying flat-out of embarrassment now and just being a naked ghost would be pretty terrible, too.

[died8yearsago]

Don't laugh, Rosa. That was terribly unprofessional.

It took an awful lot of effort, though, and if anyone asked, she was coughing, she had a cold, she definitely didn't laugh at the naked kid diving for the garbage cans.

"Okay," she said, "there's two ways we can do this. You can make it weird by making me have to cuff you, or you can just start marching toward the trooper station now. I promise there'll be clothes there."

[always_someone]

Norman opened up his mouth to say something, realized that he was kind of in no position to ask if he could at least check for something in the trash that he could cover himself with, and instead just settled on, "I won't make it weird. It's already weird."

This was going to be the longest walk of his life.

[died8yearsago]

"You can take a couple of those garbage can lids with you, if you want." See? Rosa could be sympathetic! Or she was just looking out for herself, because, yeah, that was not a view she wanted to have stuck in her head all day, thanks. "Just don't...try anything with them?" He didn't seem the type, but she knew that meant jack crap around this place. "I really don't think you want to be naked and tasered."

Not to mention adding another line to the rap sheet, but, hey, maybe he was feeling adventurous.

[always_someone]

"I really don't want to be naked and tasered," Norman confirmed, grabbing two garbage can lids like maybe he was afraid the offer would be taken back again if he hesitated too long before doing so. "You promised clothes, that's enough for me."

Normally he was pretty okay with this island, but he was coming up with a reason or two to not be a fan of Fandom Island right about now.

[died8yearsago]

"Just be glad it's a short walk, kid," Rosa offered, with a gesture for him to start walking and she'd follow to make sure he didn't try to get cute about anything. "At least you tried breaking in to somewhere right around the corner."

Instead of the other clothing store waaaaaaay on the other side of the island. That would have been fun.

[always_someone]

That... would not have been Norman's idea of fun, no.

He arranged the garbage can lids on either side of himself, basically making the most uncomfortable Norman sandwich ever, and kind of trudged his way back out to the street, turning to head toward the station.

"It was right there," he muttered, more an explanation than any attempt at an excuse. "Lucky me, I guess."