fandomtownies | Demon Marcus, Sunday

Delirium was wandering, looking for zombies. This store didn't look like it had zombies in it but it had mannequins and those were a little like zombies, so she went inside anyway. Followed by Barnabas, who was a little worried about this turn of events.

She wandered through the racks, occasionally reaching out to touch something. Sometimes petting it for a moment and sometimes yanking her hand back like it had bitten her and wiping her hand off on the leg of her torn-up jeans.

Hearing the magic word, she looked up. Chemtrails usually meant one of hers. The person who said it.. wasn't. "Oh," she said softly.

The door slammed open with just enough force that it didn't hit the wall. Nina was actually really good at controlling that sort of thing.

Years of practice.

"Good moooooooooooooooooooorning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

That was fine, Del. If things had worked out differently, he might have been one of hers, if the her that came before the her that she was now. Sparkle was behind the counter sighing as he hung up the phone, his order no more accounted for than it had been before he'd made the call, when he noticed...

Well.

Her.

"Oh my god I love your hair!"

Hi, Del. Meet Sparkle. Who was not yours, but he already immediately thought you were kind of excellent.

"And good morning to youuuuuuu," Sparkle called back, only faintly concerned about his door, since the wall seemed to be okay. "Happy Sunday!"

He kind of fell into Delight's realm, it was true.

Delirium blinked and offered a hesitant smile, "Thank you?"

She ran her fingers through her hair and brought some around to where she could see it. "Oh! Yes, it's all rainbows today. Sometimes it's red, but today it's rainbows. I like rainbows. You never have to choose a color with them, you know? They're all colors and there's so many."

"And a happy Sunday to you as well!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" she chirped back, letting the door fall shut behind her. "It's a glorious day out, the sun is shining, and I'm out shopping!!!!!!!!!!!! How could it be anything but great???????????????"

"So many," Sparkle agreed with a bright grin. "You can never have enough rainbows, right?"

And he wasn't even saying that for the obvious reasons. Rainbows were awesome.

"And glitter. I have a definite glitter bias."

Well. Sparkle occasionally had not great days in spite of all of those things, but with this much enthusiasm floating around, why would he spoil the mood by saying as much?

"Seems like a winning combination to me," he settled on. "Are you looking for anything specific today, or just browsing?"

So had Nina, honestly, but saying anything other than all the great things seemed like a good way to not have a great day and she just wasn't down for that.

"A bit of both???????? I need to, like, replace a few skirts and I was also hoping that, like, some of the summer options were starting to come in because most of my skirts and dresses are winter weight???????????"

Barnabas piped up with an immediate, alarmed, "Delirium! Do not turn into glitter!"

"But..!"

"No!" Barnabas whuffed and added, "You can't talk when you're glitter."

"Maybe I could," Del said doubtfully, "I've never tried?"

"Do not try now," Barnabas said seriously, "Stay people-shaped."

"But he likes glitter," Delirium said in a small voice.

"He also," Barnabas sent Sparkle such a look, "probably likes people-shaped people who can have conversations." So help him if you made her turn into glitter, Sparkle, you were going to get such a nip!

... Sorry, Barnabas. Sparkle's eyes were going a little more wide.

"Wait wait wait, you can turn into glitter?"

WHAT.

"That is WAY COOLER than that time I turned into soap!"

"I'm still trying to get my hands on the summer options," Sparkle said, sighing. "My suppliers lost track of my last order, so I need to place another one and hope they'll give me credit. But I do still have some of last year's stock, if being sliiightly behind the times doesn't bother you."

Said as though skirts changed a whole hell of a lot from year to year.

... Eh, they sometimes did.

Nina looked ruefully amused.

"It's not like I'm super trendy anyway," Nina said easily. "Like, most of the skirts and dresses sold in this time and age are way, way too short!!!!!!!!!!"

And she didn't really mind if other people wore them but the very idea of herself doing so made her uneasy. Same with pants, really, unless she was doing things ladies really weren't supposed to do, like breaking into places.

"NO!" Barnabas barked - literally barked, sternly.

Del gave him a look. "Yes I can," she argued.

"Yes, you can, but no, you shouldn't do that right now," Barnabas argued right back, "You can show him some other time. Tell him about the soap bubbles."

"Oh," Del said, blinking, "Soap bubbles, too. And fish and flowers and froggies and butterflies and clouds but it's hard to be a cloud because you kind of go all over the place instead of staying in one place. Did you like being soap?"

... And now Sparkle wanted to be a cloud. That sounded awesome.

"I mean, I was mostly just soap flakes still in the box," he admitted. "It was pretty boring. Actual soap bubbles sound way more fun."

A pause.

"Talking dog!!"

Sparkle was having a red-letter day.

"Fortunately, long skirts, we have," Sparkle replied, smiling a little. "Any particular colours or lengths you're looking for? Do you have anything you want to match it to, or any activities you're going to be dressing for?"

Barnabas sighed. It was going to be like that until everyone got used to him, he could tell. At least people seemed happy to see him instead of afraid.

"Soap bubbles are fun," Delirium said and then offered, "Soap flakes still in a box sounds a little bit restful?" She thought about it and then said, "I shouldn't do that in here because everything would get all wet and it wouldn't be dry even when I went back to this shape."

"Anything below the knees is suitable," she said, smiling back at him. "Though, like, I should probably get at least one that leans more towards being all, like, business-y??????????????? Other than that, I'm all for anything, I think????????????? Most skirts are pretty versatile and you can do anything in them, if you're used to wearing them, after all!!!!!!!!"

Nina frequently fought in her skirts. She was a pro a skirt wearing.

"Yeah, probably not," Sparkle replied, his attention sliding back away from Barnabas for a moment. "It's hard to sell wet clothes, generally. I mean, except maybe the swimsuits, but even then, nobody wants to try on a wet swimsuit."

Pretty much ever.

He glanced back at Barbabas thoughtfully.

"Are you a student, a teacher, or running a shop in town?"

... Look, he'd met Pinkie Pie.

Sparkle nodded, looking thoughtful.

"Maybe," he mused, "some ruffle skirts, a pencil skirt for the more businesslike stuff. For that one do you want to lean more neutral colours?"

Delirium wrinkled her nose at the idea of putting wet anything over dry skin. She didn't often notice when things changed from wet to dry while she was wearing them, she'd cheerfully walk through a rainstorm stomping and splashing in the puddles without a second thought, but wet clothing over dry skin was yuck.

The question made her perk up. "I," she said with a goofy little smile, "am a student! Just like all the other students are! I am here to see how people learn things one thing at a time instead of all of everything all at once! Like students do!"

Barnabas wasn't quite sure who Sparkle had been addressing so he answered too, "I'm her service dog."

"That's probably a good idea," she admitted, "though, like, if we could find maybe a nice dark green??????????????? I like green."

"Well, hi there to you both, then," Sparkle said, grinning a little. "Being a student here is definitely a learning experience, I'm sure you'll have a good time."

He glanced back at Barnabas.

"Both of you."

"Oh, didn't I say? Green's illegal now, everything's puce."

Sparkle.

He gave her a little grin and a wink, and then slipped around the counter to start poking through the skirt selection.

Yes, for green.

Nina laughed.

"Ohmygosh, though, like, could you imagine???????????? No one suits puce!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Puce was what a person did to their enemies.

Barnabas looked doubtful, for all a dog could look doubtful.

"I like learning," Delirium offered brightly, "It will be new to learn things one at a time." Beat. "I'm Delirium. This is Barnabas. Who are you?"

"I'm Sparkle. Good to meet you both." Sparkle smiled and shrugged. "Used to be a student at the school, too. It's definitely got 'one thing at a time' going for it, that's for sure."

The whole 'maybe two classes a week for a high school diploma' thing was different.

"Nooobody," Sparkle agreed, pulling out one skirt, two, three, holding up a fourth and humming for a moment before shaking his head and putting it back again. "Well. Maybe very particular somebodies. I am not that somebody."

He looked at Nina thoughtfully.

"Aaaand neither are you. Green it is."

"You do sort of, don't you?" Delirium said, beaming at him, "Sparkle. It's nice to meet you too. It's been nice to meet everyone so far."

Barnabas gave him a nod.

"Well, good. Most people around here are pretty great. Friendly, you know?" He glanced between Del and Barnabas again. "Most of the teachers want to teach, most of the students want to learn, the island is really only dangerous now and again..."

Important tidbits, there.

"Everyone seems very friendly," Delirium agreed.

Barnabas huffed quietly at that last. He heard the warning and appreciated it, even if Delirium wouldn't understand it. "She won't be in danger," he said quietly when she became distracted by a brightly colored shirt.

"Do you have hats for dogs?" Delirium asked after a moment.

"No," Barnabas said patiently.

"But..!"

"No," Barnabas repeated, giving Sparkle a look.

Sparkle bit the inside of his cheek, clearly trying not to smile too broadly at that.

"You know, unfortunately we don't have any hats for dogs? Human-shaped hats just tend to get in their way." He considered for a moment, and then added, "there might be somewhere else in town that does, though."

Because he wasn't going to just not throw Del a bone here, either. He could be helpful and also a little shit all at the same time.

Did you want to wind up with fresh dog crap on your shop stoop some morning? Because this is exactly how you arrange for that. Barnabas gave him such stinkeye.

"We can look at other stores!" Del gasped with delight.

"We should try to find your zombies first," Barnabas pointed out, "Before you get too distracted."

"Oh." Delirium blinked, hauled back on track by that. She looked up at Sparkle. "Do you know where the musical zombies are? I need to check on them and make sure they're okay."

"Musical... zombie-- OH." Sparkle blinked, also hauled onto some track or another by that question. "Sure, you're talking about the band at Caritas. It's open in the evenings. If you go all the way down Minotaur Lane, and then take a right before you hit the docks, Caritas is that building on the corner of Apocalypse Ave. and Griffin Way."

There were like twenty named streets in the whole town. Sparkle had directions handled.

"It doesn't have to be green," Nina said, since she also did not want an army of green skirts. "But definitely not puce."

She shivered theatrically.

"Do you, like, actually know anyone the colour looks good on??????????"

"Sure," Sparkle replied, shrugging and smiling a little. "People who aren't quiiite as pasty as you or me. I'd look dead in puce, you might also look dead in puce, but someone with a little more colour in their cheeks? It can be a pretty good look on them."

Sparkle spent a lot of time thinking about matching clothes to complexions.

A lot of time doing it. Boy had to earn a living somehow.

"I suppose so," she said, since Nina couldn't deny that she was terribly pasty. "But, okay, like, how about chartreuse??????????"

Did anyone really look good in what was basically vomit-green?

"Only acceptable as highlights or flashes of colour on other colours," Sparkle decided. "A whole chartreuse anything? Is someone somewhere making a horrible mistake. If only for the fact that it's murder on the eyeballs, oh my god."

She clapped her hands together.

"Yes!!!!!!!!!! A terrible, horrible mistake!!!!!!!!!!!!!! One that, like, we would never make!!!!!!!!!!"

Though, really, before the past year Nina had never had so much control over her wardrobe as she had now. It had been school-issued everything.

"I mean, I hope we would never make it," Sparkle replied, "but there's no accounting for the weird crap the island might make us do someday, so never say never, you know?"

Delirium looked a little confused.

"You have a guide dog," Barnabas reminded her gently, "We'll find it."

"The names of the roads here don't understand themselves," she said doubtfully, "You can't have a griffin and an apocalypse. Not on the same day."

Sparkle gave a crooked little smile at that.

"We have a lot of things here that shouldn't exist on the same day. He'll help you find the zombies, don't worry."

Demon Marcus, Sunday

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