It had been a long couple of days on the road, only for when the Millers pulled up outside the Mississippi town that had hired them to come in, to find the field they normally set-up in full of corn. And doors shut in their faces, when they went asking questions.

Seems the mayor'd run off after writing himself a bunch of checks a few months back, and no one had thought to tell the carnival that'd been scheduled to come in for a week.

Eventually they'd found somewhere else large enough for all of them to set up camp, but the show would not be going on this week. Instead, there'd be repairs to things and the adults frantically trying to rustle up a new show close by so there'd be some income this week. But since things were tense with the locals, Ada'd found herself bundled-up and shipped off to Fandom 'for her own safety.' Which was Chester's way of saying she wasn't putting enough effort into passing as human, lately.

Hence why Ada was sitting in The Perk later in the evening, drinking ridiculous sugary coffee drinks while texting people and trying to decide if she was going to spend her money on a hotel room or 'borrow' blankets from somewhere and set up in their favorite party warehouse for a few days, until she was allowed to go home.

Honestly, it was cold enough that the hotel was winning out, despite the dent it would put in her personal finances. But for now, she was going to take advantage of the light and warmth of the Perk, and have better coffee than anything any of the Millers ever made.

[OOC: Open Perk is Open!]

It was, officially, Ada's last day as a resident of Fandom Island.

In the untouched upstairs apartment she had stashed the battered steamer trunk and dufflebag she'd arrived on the island with ages ago, along with her new companion and accessories. She'd finish out this shift, lock up, and catch her portal at the Causeway directly to the Miller family ranch in Arizona.

It was early March at home. She'd have three days to get her trailer dusted off and in working order and her costumes prepped before they had to hit the road.

That was later. This was now, and now had Ada lounging out front of the store again with the sidewalk sale set up.

Demon Marcus was open, and your mermaid was in.

[OCD freeeeeeeeeeee]

Sparkle had let Ada pick up a few extra shifts this week since she wanted the paycheck, so here she was at Demon Marcus, with her toolkit and work gloves.

Why sit around when she was perfectly capable of starting repairs to the front of the store herself? Ada'd grown-up building haunted houses and doing repairs to the ranch, putting in some new framing for the front wall wasn't a huge deal, and it would give them something to nail the plywood to so they could prep the space for the major repairs that Sparkle would need a contractor for.

There were a few racks of things out on the sidewalk, and a chair with an umbrella for shade, should Ada choose to take a break, but she'd be spending most of the day in the windows, sweeping out the broken glass, repairing the door frame, and putting in some temporary supports.

Demon Marcus was as open as it could be, and Ada was in.

Apparently there was a hurricane coming.

Ada would be lying if she said she wasn't a little bit concerned about being a mermaid in the path of a hurricane. She'd never been anywhere near a hurricane before...she could ignore the the ocean's song most days, but who knew how loud it would get when the storm kicked up?

So, she wasn't going to lie, by doing her best not to think about that part of it. Instead, she was moving merchandise out of the window displays and trying to figure out how to board up the windows the most effectively.

Arizona had flash-floods, not hurricanes, so she was doing a lot of on-the-fly research on her phone. Huh. Apparently she should check the sump pump in the basement, too...

Demon Marcus was open, but, well, good luck shopping with everything being rearranged to keep stuff away from the walls and windows. Though Ada would ring you up if you did want to buy something.

[OOC: open & OCD freeeeeeeee!]

Something was...moving. Out in the water. Flickers of shadows under the waves, and glimpses of something red, glowing, watching before the current shifted and it was gone again.

There were more people out and about than usual, more sunshine, and even the water tasted Different. It was Interesting, and she liked Interesting. She wasn't hungry, yet, but but there was a fine line between curiosity and snack-time.

[OOC: Open for all your murderfish interaction & sighting needs!]

Their adventure over the weekend had served to get most of Ada's deep unrest out from under her skin, though not all of it, but enough that she was able to focus enough at work to do inventory.

She wasn't sure why there as a giant rack of peach-colored rompers in the men's section, and to be honest, she didn't really care. She was going to grab the most obnoxiously patterned one off the rack, and try to wrangle one of the mannequins into it, because Ada wasn't going to pass up the chance to stick this in the front window for shits and giggles.

Demon Marcus was open, and the mermaid is in!

Sure, Ada had gone home for a few days just a couple of weeks ago. But without classes to keep her entertained, she was getting... twitchy. Really, really twitchy, and claustrophobic, like the walls were closing in on her.

She'd gotten...better. About walls. Than she had been when she first got here. But Ada had never coped well with 1) boredom or 2) changes she couldn't control (like graduating. aging.) or 3) rainy weather, and it was a thunderstorm day. All that combined? Well, she was practically climbing the walls. When she wasn't contemplating hitting them with something to make herself feel better.

Demon Marcus was open, and the mermaid was... currently trying on cute clubbing clothes to try and distract herself from the itch under her skin and the headache that was brewing along with the storms.

Ada was bored.

No, wait, that wasn't accurate. She'd been home for a few days to drop things off and do some repairs to her trailer, since it had been sitting idle and empty for two years. She'd had plenty of things to do, and she had more than enough little tasks to do here at work to keep her hands busy. There was inventory, and the store could use a good deep-cleaning, and invoice sheets to organize.

Ada was lonely. It had been so nice to be in the middle of the hustle and noise of the carnival, and her family had clearly missed her, but... they weren't as openly affectionate as her friends were. Well, that wasn't fair. They were. They laughed and messed up her hair and told her how much they'd missed her. It was just removed slightly, because they all knew they were going to lose her, just like Marti. And maybe if they held a little bit of their hearts back this time, it wouldn't hurt as bad.

But it had been loud and boisterous and everything Miller, and Fandom was so deadly silent by comparison. It was enough to make a carnie positively twitchy.

Demon Marcus was open, and the mermaid had the music turned up and her dancing shoes on, while she ran around counting inventory. It was better than letting her brain get all spun up over nothing.

[OCD freeeee]

Ada had just finished putting the final touches on the Prom window display; dresses and suits and tuxes and all sorts of fancy formal wear. From the whimsical and dramatic to the seductive, it was a wide range of fashion to showcase the best that Demon Marcus had to offer.

Now? She was going to sit at the register and finish up the alterations on her own dress, though she'd be happy to help any customers.

Demon Marcus was open, there were cookies on the counter for anyone who wandered by, and the mermaid was in!

Considering the squirrels had roused her at way too early o' clock, Ada had decided it was better to head to the store from the radio station instead of the dorms.

She wasn't going to stay open all day, but this was kinda a public service, and she grabbed some markers and quickly wrote up a big sign to stick in the window.

Need Emergency Clothing?
25% off if Fandom pulled an April Fool on you
TODAY ONLY

Demon Marcus was open, at least until lunch time, and the mermaidman? was in.

It was supposed to be spring, right? Why was it so cold???

Ada had even wrapped her little dehumidifer in a tiny scarf -- because she needed a little silly bit of humor this week -- and was doing her best blanket-burrito impression behind the counter. How many soft, silky shawls or scarves or wraps could she drape herself in? Who knew! But she was going to find out!

Demon Marcus was open, and the mermaid was a mite chilly.

Ada arrived at work after class, perfectly happy to settle in and spend her shift daydreaming about the trip for Spring Break.

Sure, she wasn't going to be going swimming, but she was looking forward to the sunshine and the warm and not needing to wear eight million layers.

Demon Marcus was open, and Ada was...around. If you needed help.

Ada had made... a lot of chocolates in class. Which had inspired her to swing by the store and buy some more wrapped-chocolates, that she could put out in the candy dish on the counter.

Candy made everyone happier, right? And happy people bought things!

Demon Marcus was open, and the mermaid was there to help. You might even get a chocolate out of the deal.

Yeah, Ada wasn't doing much actual work at Demon Marcus today. She was too busy catching up on her reading, and yelling at Townie nonsense. "Taking 'em away from their People ain't gonna fix nothing! You're just gonna make 'em sad and bored! These morons even worked with an elephant?"

Someone had an opinion about this, and it was far preferable to get her anger out over something like this, than think about if she was sad or not that Marti didn't count as 'dead' enough to come visit her.

Demon Marcus was open, and Ada was... various levels of helpful.

Ada had most definitely considered not coming to work today, but she could only hide in her room for so long before that got depressing.

Considering multiple things had tried to kill her over the last week, including the school itself after everything was supposedly back to 'normal', she didn't think it was too terribly paranoid that she had most of the knives from Isabela hidden about her person.

The fish was missing, which was kinda disturbing -- as much as Ada didn't like it, she hoped it hadn't been eaten -- but otherwise the store seemed intact and none the worse for wear.

Demon Marcus was open, and the mermaid was available for your fashion needs.

No, it wasn't her usual day, but Ada had forgotten her personal sewing kit here and needed it to mend a rip in her favorite flannel sleepwear. Yes, her bed was covered in a veritable pile of blankets, but she got cold easy! And once she was here, well, she might as well stay and open it up.

Besides, she was pretty sure Sparkle wouldn't care if she worked two days this week, and Ada wanted the paycheck.

So the mermaid was in, mostly doing inventory, since she figured most people wouldn't be expecting the store to be open today, and thus no customers to interrupt her.

Today the fish was over by the window, which suited Ada just fine. Sparkle wouldn't care if she left the Halloween display up for a few more days, right? Halloween wasn't over until Thanksgiving.

Demon Marcus was open, and the mermaid had the door propped open to enjoy the nice, warm day, even if it was a bit cloudy for her tastes.

[OOC: OCD freeeeeeeeee]

The visitors were gone, there wasn't any ominous fog, and Ada had a shipment of fantasy-like jewelry to inventory and put away. Fantastical ear-cuffs, finger-claws, hair nets... it was all quite pretty. Well, she wasn't a fan of the mermaid necklace, but everything else was pretty.

Demon Marcus was open, and the mermaid was typing slower than usual because this thing is a fucking pain is playing with shinies.

Ada opened up the store after her classes, immediately digging in to the shipment of scarves from Sunday, trying them on and burying herself in a pile of warm and fluffy.

Look, you cope with your incoming family in your way, Ada was going to build a soft and cozy fort.

Demon Marcus was open, and the mermaid is...somewhere in the scarf-pile.

Ada threw the shop open the moment she got in to town from class, turned up her favorite angry 8Tracks playlists, and sat down behind the counter to pour herself a vodka soda and rummage around for the mystery novel that someone had once left behind. She wondered who this 'Makita' was that had printed her name so carefully inside the cover and then for some reason had not taken her book with her. You didn't write your name on things unless they were too precious to risk losing, if you couldn't replace them easily.

She should know.

The music was loud, the mermaid was angry, and Demon Marcus was open.

Look, it wasn't that there was too much color out there right now. Ada loved color. Color was almost as important to her life as sparkles. It was that it clashed. Horribly. And that was a goddamned sin.

She was in the store early since class had been cancelled, and had dutifully changing out the window display. To shades of black, white, and gray. Some blessed, blessed eye-relief for those who couldn't take all the unicorn-rainbow-dewdrop-neon of their current location.

Demon Marcus was open, and Ada was trying on all the sunglasses to see which ones made her look like a fashion model, instead of just someone with a color-hangover.