Luke's Diner, Wednesday Morning

[outofherdepths]

Duke hadn't come home yesterday. And while that wasn't exactly not normal, usually he called, if only to tell Larceny where the easy food was and to remind her not to eat the porgs. (Not that she had! In...MONTHS!)

But last night...nothing. And while both the radio and her messages held the answer, she didn't know to (or how to) check them.

"It's gonna be okay," the busboy said, all sympathy, when he came out with her expected noodles and cake - before she'd even had to ask. "It'll all come to nothing. You'll see."

Larceny didn't even get to ask 'what will' before he was scurrying back into the kitchen, wailing something about Duke being the only one who cared enough to know their names.

Humans sure were weird sometimes.

Today's Specials
JUSTICE NOODLES
FREEDOM CAKE
FREE DUKE! FREE DUKE! FREE DUKE!

[No OCD]

Comments

[thatwaslucky]

While everyone else went to the trooper station, Rey actually kind of assumed it'd all been taken care of by now, so she went to Luke's when she didn't see Duke at the boat.

"I guess he's still in there," she said, noting the specials board.

[outofherdepths]

"Who is still where?" Larceny asked.

She hadn't bothered reading the Specials Menu. She knew what she wanted.

[thatwaslucky]

Right!

"Duke's still at the station?" Rey said, a little note of apology in her voice.

[outofherdepths]

Larceny looked stricken. "But--but! He cannot be there! Duke has done nothing wrong!"

Yeah, that was going to be a chant in the kitchen before too long.

[thatwaslucky]

"I know." Actually there was a very good chance that Duke had done something Illegal but that probably wasn't what he was arrested for and she wasn't gonna say that. "I'm sure it's being taken care of. I actually thought he'd be here already."

[outofherdepths]

Larceny's grasp on 'legal' was tenuous at best and was mostly limited to 'don't sneak into Lucifer's house and eat food.'

"No," she said, shaking her head. "When they let you out of jail, they send you away."

It Had Happened To Her.

[thatwaslucky]

"That won't happen," Rey assured her. "They'll find out he didn't do anything and then he'll come home. I promise.."

[outofherdepths]

"No," Larceny said. "I have to go find him and help him. Like he did me." She got up.

And then immediately sat back down.

"How do I help someone in jail?"

[thatwaslucky]

"I think you have to pay?" Rey said after a moment. "I don't actually know much about how jail works here."

And she was not going to give "break out" as an option.

[outofherdepths]

Probably for the best. Larceny was already going to have to mind-wipe so many people! Mind-wiping even more because they saw her break the lock with her bare hands would just make it worse.

"Pay?" Larceny asked. "Not a tab?"

[thatwaslucky]

Oh Larceny.

"You don't get a tab for jail, no."

[outofherdepths]

And people still didn't accept the money she tried to give them. Possibly because it was usually just whatever colored paper she had handy.

But she knew something that humans always wanted: her pearls. There were lots of stories about humans and pearls, from the mermaid stories of leaving a pearl behind whenever you took human clothing to other mermaid stories.

Of what happened after humans discovered that the way to get pearls was to make mermaids cry.

"If the police need to get paid to release Duke, I will pay them," Larceny said, standing up. "Duke needs to come home."

[thatwaslucky]

"How are you paying?" This felt important.

[outofherdepths]

Rey had good instincts.

"Back on the boat," Larceny said vaguely. "I have - They are for emergencies. That I use to pay."

[thatwaslucky]

"It's money, right?"

Honestly she didn't want a Larceny to be disappointed if she tried to pay with something else.

[outofherdepths]

Like a bagful of pearls dumped on a detective's desk?

...Asking for no reason.

"It is like money like a momca is like money," she clarified.

'Clarified.'

[thatwaslucky]

Rey tilted her head. "What's a momca?"

Not so much with the clarification, no.

[outofherdepths]

"A mom's card," Larceny explained. "You keep it for emergencies - like lunch when you are very hungry - and it is not money but it acts like money."

She'd learned about it when she'd mugged a first grader in Baltimore.

[thatwaslucky]

"I had no idea that was a thing."

Being literally dirt poor and not having a mom and all.

[outofherdepths]

"My friend told me about it," Larceny explained. "She bought me lunch to teach me that mugging people is bad."

Again. A first grader.

[thatwaslucky]

"That was a very good lesson for her to teach you," Rey said firmly.

[outofherdepths]

"The other girls were doing it!" Larceny protested.

[thatwaslucky]

"...The other girls were mugging people?"

Next would be checking to make sure they had the same definition of 'mugging.'

[outofherdepths]

Larceny nodded. "They would swarm around another girl and put an arm around her shoulder and demand the money. That is how I learned to do it. But then the little girl I mugged didn't have money just a momca and she told me it was a bad thing to do. Even though I was very hungry."

[thatwaslucky]

There was a pause.

A slightly long pause.

"You mugged a little girl?"