The Great Dollar Store Experience

"Every day... for a year," Pearl added. "Then, if we're lucky, maybe it'll only haunt our nightmares every OTHER night."

"But only if we're REALLY lucky..." Marina continued, taking another somewhat disgusted look around.

Suddenly, something caught Pearl's attention, causing her to stop and stare. "Hey, check it! Donuts!" she cried, pointing towards a small donut shop. "What'cha think, Marina? Wanna go nuts for some donuts?"

(Ok joining in. Even if Flint isn't a part of le group yet (note I'm going to make him more tolerable here xD)

Flint was at a cheap mall... How he got here, he didn't know. As he strolled through the main walk way, lined on either side by store after store, hands in pockets and wings folded neatly against his back, he considered this fact. Trying to wrack his brain as to how he got here. In the end he gave up. He didn't care how he got here, really. Not at the moment. He just kinda wanted out.

While doing all this, he forced himself to ignore the atmosphere of the place, and it's slightly run down state. It... Wasn't important....

"Oh!" Marina quickly turned her head to look at the donut shop when Pearl pointed it out, her eyes lighting up. "Yes, please...!" she responded, sounding rather eager. As they continued to walk through this seemingly massive mall, she could feel herself becoming hungrier by the minute.

(KK, let's see how long it takes for Pearl (or somehow even Marina) to get on his nerves once they meet >w>)

Pearl snickered at Marina's excited response, then quickly strolled towards the rather plain-looking shop. As soon as she stepped through the door, she announced her and Marina's arrival with a deafening shout. "YO, MAKE WAY! OFF THE HOOK IN THE HOUSE, Y'AAAAAAAAAAAAAAALL!!"

The two customers and cashier inside just stared blankly.

(XDDD Ermahgersh)

Flint froze hearing a shout in the not to distant distance. "wha.." He mumbled confused.. But curiosity got the best of the young king, and he picked up his pace a bit to see what the source of the noise was.

Only to stumble upon a couple of what looked like marine animals, but in humanoid form. He paused in the entryway to the store, staring wide eyed.

Marina strolled into the shop at the same moment as Pearl, almost jumping in slight surprise when she shouted a particularly loud greeting. She quickly saw the humans turn to stare at them after this and gasped, taking a step closer to her smaller friend. Then, she proceeded to return the three individuals' stares with a cautious look and a small, awkward wave. "H-hi, umm... Don't mind us... W-we're just a couple of hungry shoppers looking for a snack...!" she explained, failing to sound very composed in her shock over encountering more humans.

Pearl stared at the humans for a moment, looking somewhat quizzical. Although they looked strange, she couldn't help feeling like she'd seen them somewhere before. However, this thought very quickly left her mind, and she boldly marched up to the counter, cutting in front of anyone who happened to be waiting (which caused them to mutter in annoyance). "Yo, so what'cha got?" she asked the man behind the counter, craning her neck to see if there was a menu hanging somewhere.

"Uhhhh, excuse me, miss, but you're going to have to wait in line like everyone else," the worker told Pearl as he motioned to the end of the line, looking rather unimpressed by her boldness.

Flint snorted to himself, crossing his arms, and leaning against the door frame in the entry way as he watched Pearl proceeded to annoy pretty much everyone in the store. An amused smirk on his face. For once he wasn't the target of someone... Like her.

But as such as someone of her demeanor was present in the store, Flint patiently waited where he was, assuming it was quite out of harms way, until the girl had settled down some.

Marina's eyes grew wide as she watched Pearl boldly make her way to the counter. "Pearl...!!" she cried, briefly panicking when she saw the worker's unimpressed look. "We should be careful! I think-... I think we're dealing with humans...!" she continued, her voice becoming somewhat of a whisper at the word "humans".

Just as Pearl opened her mouth, about to talk back to the shopkeeper, she heard Marina suddenly pipe up, and quickly turned to look in her direction. "Say what?! No way!" she responded, skeptical. "Humans got wiped out FOREVER ago! How can they be humans if there are none left?!" she questioned, crossing her arms. "Someone as totally nerdy as you should know that!"

The humans' attention shifted from Pearl to Marina when the latter spoke up. As the conversation went on, they appeared even more baffled, exchanging confused looks with one another.

Marina, without any actual proof that these creatures were, in fact, humans-- a thought that she herself could hardly believe-- froze briefly, a flustered expression on her face. "I-... It's totally impossible, I know... But the resemblance is just... It's kind of uncanny, don't you think??" As she spoke, she momentarily glanced in the direction of the three strangers, once again feeling unnerved by their similarity to ancient depictions of the species.

Flint could still hear Pearl the conversation. And was as baffled as the humans as to the way they treated the word 'human' and therefore the species with such care. Who were these odd creatures? The thought caused Flint to skeptically narrow his eyes slightly.

At this point, the shopkeeper felt the need to speak up and put an end to at least some of the confusion. "I have no idea what any of this talk about humans going extinct is about, but... yes, we're human," he clarified with a very straightforward tone. "I'm human. As far as I can tell, they're human, too," he told Pearl and Marina, motioning to the other customers.

"W-... WHAAAAAT?!" Pearl whirled around and stared in disbelief at the shopkeeper, absolutely shocked. "But that's LITERALLY! IMPOSSIBLE!" she practically screamed, having no idea what was going on.

Also turning to the shopkeeper, Marina felt her jaw drop open and her eyes widen in complete shock. Despite her previous speculation, the sudden confirmation directly from a human still managed to greatly catch her off-guard. "You really ARE?!" she gasped, feeling a mix of extreme bewilderment, wariness, and even awe. "Th-that-... How are you even-... ... Did we get sent BACK IN TIME??"

Flint couldn't help but laugh, probably noticeably loud. Sense when were humans such a novelty? Even he, knowing he was a video game character, understands who humans are, and how they relate to 'characters' like him. This was explained to him as a child by a family friend. If he believes that information is another matter though.

"I DON'T KNOW!!" Pearl responded very loudly, clearly feeling so confused that it was rather overwhelming. Just then, she heard a laugh come from the sidelines, and instantly shot a glare in the direction it came from. When she saw what appeared to be a cat with wings laughing at her and Marina, however, her glare turned into a surprised, somewhat wide-eyed stare instead. "Huh?!" Just as she was about to say something, though, she realized that she had gotten completely distracted from why they came here in the first place; to get a snack. Speaking to the catlike creature would have to wait for just a moment.
"Uh, OK, SO..." Pearl turned back around and faced the shopkeeper. "You probably don't get this, but we're KIND OF a big deal, 'K? We've got no time for things like lines! So you gonna give us some donuts or what?"

"Not if you don't get in line," the shopkeeper simply told Pearl with an unamused sigh. He wasn't having any of this.

"UGHHHH!" With a frustrated groan, Pearl turned to Marina. "Marina, help me out here!"

When Marina saw Pearl glaring in the direction of the sudden laughter, she looked over as well to see, much to her surprise, a bipedal cat with large wings. "Wha-...!?" For several moments, she simply stared in the direction of the creature, even more confused than before.
However, she was quickly brought back to their current situation when she heard Pearl asking for her help. "Ah?! OK... uhmm..." All of a sudden, she turned to the shopkeeper after a moment of thought. "... Please...?" she asked gently, fluttering her eyelashes a few times.

Upon hearing the soft sound of her voice, the shopkeeper, squinting his eyes slightly, turned his head to see Marina a short distance away, seemingly attempting to charm him into letting the two get away with cutting in line. However, judging by the look on his face, it didn't appear to be working. "... Um..."
Realizing this, Pearl looked back again and sighed, seeing that Marina was still not joining her at the counter. In fact, she was more or less standing in line, which was exactly what Pearl was trying to avoid. "What are you doing BACK THERE?! C'mooooon!" she called to her impatiently, quickly motioning for her to come to the counter.
Meanwhile, the people near Marina appeared slightly unnerved, particularly staring at the squirmy tentacles upon her head. Actually, they had been this way ever since she came to stand near them. Apparently, this was turning out to be a common reaction from humans.

Flint raised an eyebrow at the two girls who stared at him, still leaning on the door. He didn't seem impressed with their blatant reaction to having never seen one of his kind. However, he glanced past them to the Cashier, seeing he was just as bemused as the red haired kattaca himself. Flint somehow doubted they'd get away with cutting the line.

Marina looked hesitant when Pearl told her to come closer, her nervousness around the humans having caused her to keep her distance up until now. However, taking a deep breath, she finally gathered up the courage to walk over to the counter, then resumed staring at the shopkeeper with a pleading expression. "We'll be out of here as soon as we buy our donuts, I promise..."

The shopkeeper looked bewildered at first, as if he wasn't sure what to think of the creature currently standing before him. However, after a moment, a bit of an amused smirk appeared on his face, and he chortled slightly. "I'm sure you will... So you should probably get in line, because that's how you buy them," he told Marina in a sarcastically gentle tone.

Marina's expression became somewhat blank when she was given nothing but a sarcastic response from the shopkeeper. Although she was about ready to give up and just go back to waiting in line, she decided to try a little bit harder, first. "We're sooo hungry, though... ... Please...??" she insisted, her eyes even wider than before.

"Sorry, that's not going to work," the shopkeeper responded, with the amusement in his expression now joined by a glimmer of pity. "By the way, if you'd just waited, you--and the rest of these customers--would probably both be eating by now. So if you'll please..." Once again, he motioned to the back of the line.

At last, Pearl gave in. "Ugh, FIIIIINE," she sighed harshly, rolling her eyes. "C'mon, Marina; guess we're s'posed to wait around like a couple of NOBODIES." Grouchily, she marched to the back of the line, then stood there with a sour, childish pout, her arms crossed tightly.