Turtle & Canary; Friday [11/16].

[somethingwithturquoise]

When Summer came into the shop today to find a small Indian kid diligently sweeping through the aisles with a small kid-sized broom, she was confused for maybe about two-point-five seconds before it clicked in her brain what was happening. "Awwwww," she gushed to no one in particular, because Apu was very focused on his work apparently. "Guess the island's doing the thing where it turns everyone to kids again."

Except her, apparently, which was kind of lame, really. Maybe it just happened to students, and since she was graduated now...even though Apu wasn't a student, but, hey, you tell yourself whatever you need to to make yourself feel better about it, Summer. But being a kid last year had been fun, really. She kind of wondered if BDG still had that cookie cookbook she'd made for him. Didn't he do his warehouse thing on Fridays? Maybe she'll have to swing by on a lunch break and ask him or something.

Until then, though, there was snow outside, so she had to make sure that all the winter stuff was out and ready to be sold, and she also wanted to do a sweep to make sure that anything shelved at kid-level wasn't something she'd regret being shelves at kid-level this weekend.

Today's Squishy Flavors
Red
Cola, OJ, Purple Stuff
And two kinds of Sunny D!

Today's Jello Flavor
Lucky Charms Jello Parfait

Turtle & Canary is open! (and kid friendly!)

Comments

[spectre_alenko]

Kaidan found himself a caretaker for a smol, so Kaidan needed to do some shopping and he had not much clue other than 'sugary cereal, milk, pancake mix, maybe some fruit'.

He went to T&C with teeny!Hernando carried on his hip. The boy was bundled up in about five layers of winter gear. When they made it inside, Kaidan loosened the strings around his hood and pushed it back, displaying a wealth of curls. Picking up a shopping basket, he put the handles in Hernando's hands. "Ok, buddy. You hold the basket. I'll find the foods."

A little panicked around the eyes? Check.

['nando modded with permission, Sam's at pool and won't be pinging into this thread.]

[somethingwithturquoise]

Kaidan was always someone Summer would be happy to see, but, man, today he was especially a sight for sore eyes.

"Oh, thank God," she said when she spotted him getting ready to get his shopping on. "I was going to totally lose my shi--" Little ones nearby, Summer! Language! She cleared her throat, "crap if I was the only adult around this weekend."

Her head tilted at the bundle of layers and curls that she assumed was a person. "Who's that, though?"

[spectre_alenko]

Kaidan also looked relieved to see another adult. "Hi Summer," he said with a lopsided smile, "Who else has been smallified? I hadn't got around to sending a mass text to everyone."

He adjusted Hernando a little higher on his hip, "This is Hernando. He doesn't speak much English right now, mostly Spanish. I can understand him but, uh, I know like 20 words and most of them are either swears or words for 'beer'."

Hernando regarded the shop lady for a moment and then hid his face against Kaidan's shoulder.

[firstofitskind]

Right, so. After an extremely well-balanced breakfast of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, Verity had suggested they split up to do 'recon' of the island.

So here Liam was, poking his head into various shops and looking around curiously. Just... taking everything in.

[spectre_alenko]

Kaidan's still shopping with Hernando on his hip. He eyed the new smol and asked cheerfully. "Hey, buddy. What's your name?"

[firstofitskind]

Liam would answer in a second.

Maybe.

But first he was going to give that basket full of stuff a curious glance, and then look back up at Kaidan inquiringly. What was all that stuff?

[spectre_alenko]

Kaidan had far, far too many friends who'd had food insecurity as kids and that inquiring look - well, it would have made him wince, if he weren't already schooling his expression.

"You hungry?" he asked, "I'm picking up some snacks for this guy." He bounced Hernando a little on his hip. Hernando giggled softly and turned curious eyes on the new smol. Hi, new smol.

[firstofitskind]

Well, the sandwiches Verity had made had been very good! So no, technically, he wasn't hungry anymore, but everything was all so new. He wanted to experience all of it.

And you experienced food by eating it, of course. He nodded vigorously, and his lips quirked up in a small smile at the child Kaidan was carrying. He offered Hernando a small wave, and the triangular scar-looking mark on his palm was probably a good clue as to who he was.

[somethingwithturquoise]

"Hi, Hernando," Summer offered a little wave and a gentle smile to go with it. "Err, hola, mi llamo Summer."

And then she looked a bit apologetic. "That's...kind of all I know, though, sorry. And, uh, yeah, I haven't had a chance to catch up with anyone else, really, but usually, if Apu's changed, there's a good likelihood it's pretty much nearly island-wide. I mean, last year I definitely did. This year, I guess I get to be the grown-up. There's usually at least a handful of us, probably to keep this place from going all Lord of the Flies King of Pests or something."

[spectre_alenko]

Hernando smiled and waved back. All smols were friends. It is known.

Kaidan watched with a fond smile. He caught sight of the scars and exhaled a slow breath. Ok, he knew who this was. Liam had never mentioned food allergies.

"Have you tried chocolate yet?" Kaidan asked. He was still under the impression that Liam had grown up in some sort of weird, severe, ascetic cult so he figured chocolate might be a safe bet.

[somethingwithturquoise]

Well, just look at this place, chock-full of helpful adults.

"Hey, there," Summer offered a smile of greeting, tilting her head at the head poking in. "Did you need help finding anything?"

And then it crossed her mind that any of the kids coming in today would be needing thing, but they probably wouldn't exactly be able to pay for them, so she made a note to herself to start jotting down names so she can start delivering bills to everyone when they were back to normal again.

This was a business, not a charity, people!

[firstofitskind]

Liam shook his head. He knew what chocolate was, of course. He knew what lots of things were. In theory.

[spectre_alenko]

Hernando waved back and said a soft, "Hola."

"Good," Kaidan said with relief, "I'm pretty worried about it, actually. Hernando's little enough he shouldn't be left on his own, and if there's others in similar straits.. I mean, do they all have somewhere to stay? Is there some sort of meal plan out there for them?"

He ran his free hand through his hair, agitated, "It drives me nuts. This isn't the first time this has happened but there's like, no manual. I guess I'm adding 'run around town checking on all my friends to make sure they have shelter and food' to my plan for today and.. I dunno. Renting out the arcade and throwing an island-wide pizza party tomorrow or something so I can make sure they have somewhere safe to be."

[firstofitskind]

Liam shook his head. He wasn't actually here to shop. Just to scout out the place, see how good of a hiding place it'd make if they ever were under attack. Or at least, that was the 'game' he and Verity were supposed to be playing.

[spectre_alenko]

Kaidan nodded and added one of the import chocolate bars. He sure as heck wasn't going to give his friend the crappy brown wax Americans tried to pass off as chocolate.

He debated grabbing a few more just in case of other kids and then decided the optics were akin to having a windowless van with 'free candy' on the side of it and deferred.

Kaidan looked down at Liam and asked, "Have you met Verity?"

[onefootoutthedoor]

There were places on the island Peebee hadn't explored yet, and that was just not okay. Especially if there were places that had sugar.

Which was why she was poking her head through the door of T&C, staring wide-eyed and eagerly at the Squishy machine.

[firstofitskind]

Another nod. And a grin. Verity was so nice. Maybe kind of bossy, but like... not in a mean way, or anything. And she'd shared breakfast with him!

[spectre_alenko]

"Was she an adult?" Kaidan asked hopefully.

[firstofitskind]

A shake of the head, this time.

The closest they'd had to adult supervision had been the mice, who could absolutely not be counted on to be a sobering influence. Especially when there was food involved.

[spectre_alenko]

Well, there went that hope. "Are you able to come and go from whichever apartment you're staying at?" he asked, "Or do we need to find you somewhere safe to stay at night?"

At least the mice could provide some sort of guidance?

[firstofitskind]

Yeah, guidance about how much cheese and cake this weekend should involve.

There were too many questions there to answer without using words, so Liam opted to actually reply with something that wasn't a nod or a headshake.

"I have a safe place," he said, finally.

[spectre_alenko]

The mice were trolls.

The answer made him breathe a little easier. "Ok. That's good. Verity too?"

He assumed they'd stick together. He hoped they'd stick together.

[spectre_alenko]

Kaidan glanced over as the door open. He blinked and then smiled. Finally, someone he recognized on sight. "Hi, Peebee. You need snacks too?"

He still had bitty!Nando on his hip.

[firstofitskind]

Another nod. "We're doing recon," he informed Kaidan.

Because that was a nice, normal kid's game.

[spectre_alenko]

As far as Kaidan was concerned, that was a great game. He didn't trust the island when everyone was an adult, he sure as hell didn't trust it to behave when so many people had been enkiddified.

"Good," he said. His free hand dug in his pocket and dug out his wallet. Juggled Hernando about a little so he could dig out his business card to hand to Liam. "My name and contact info, in case you bump into anything you can't handle during your recon. Make sure Verity and her mice know, too."

Because sure, asking for mice to have an emergency contact number is perfectly normal.