The Great Dollar Store Experience

"Yeah... Maybe..." Marina, now sounding quite unsettled, hastily scampered after Pearl as her friend started heading down the isle. Along the way, she found herself glancing at the shelves every so often with a bewildered expression, as though she couldn't quite believe what she was seeing.

Once she reached the end of the isle, Pearl paused for a moment to look around, and realized that this particular store was far larger than she had thought. It was like a hypermarket, except every item sold was of appalling quality. "Ugh, this place is massive!" she remarked with a bit of a groan. "It's like Mako Mart, except totally wack... It's like... WACK-o Mart."

Marina was briefly rendered speechless when she saw just how large this store actually was, only managing a small, awkward giggle when she heard Pearl's pun, when normally, it probably would have made her laugh quite a bit more. "Ahahaaa... True that," she responded in a somewhat nervous tone. "... Is it even really necessary to have so much space for all this awful stuff...?"

"Yeah, it's a complete waste," Pearl replied, briefly glancing over at a bin full of flimsy, sloppily-painted plastic toy construction machines. "Know what would save these guys a ton of space? Throwing all this stuff into one of those big, bad metal squasher things!" she commented with a mischievous grin, bringing her hands together and pretending to crush something flat between them. "You know what I mean! One of those big machines that eats cars and stuff and crushes them into pancakes!"

"Ooh, yeah; a compactor!" Marina replied back with a little chuckle, glancing into the same bin as Pearl a few moments later and just as quickly looking away, mildly disgusted by the sloppy paint jobs. "Hah, yep, they totally need one of those...! That would get the job done for sure!" she added, a glimmer of amusement briefly replacing the worried look in her eyes.

Pearl grinned a little more when her attempt to ease Marina's nervousness by somewhat changing her mind appeared to work. It seemed that she picked just the right topic, and she wasn't about to let it stop just yet. "Or maybe just throw it all over the ground and bring in one of those huge rollers!" She proceeded to pretend to drive a road roller, strolling around with an impish expression while holding an invisible steering wheel. "VROOOOOOOMMMMMMM!"

Marina began to giggle even harder as she watched Pearl stroll around, pretending to drive a road roller. "Yesssss!" For the moment, she was definitely feeling a little bit better; in addition to the topic of heavy machinery being one that she was particularly enthusiastic about, she found her friend's antics to be quite priceless.

"Hey, what if they made a roller like that? Like, a ROLLER roller?? Can you imagine?!" Pearl commented with a slightly maniacal twinkle in her eye. "I'd be splatting fools left, right, and CENTER with that thing, yo! Bet I could have one custom-made..."

Marina's eyes widened at the thought of something so massive being used for a casual ink battle. "Wow... There's no way that'd be legal!" she responded with a shake of her head. "I don't think a vehicle would work as an ink weapon, anyway... If you could even manage to fit such a big one onto the battlefield," she noted in addition, the corners of her mouth still slightly upturned in amusement.

"Wanna watch me?" Pearl remarked with a childish pout (which was, of course, in fun). "I've got ways. I know people. Probably."

"Haha, OK... Good luck getting them to let you in with something like that, though," Marina responded with a playful smirk and a bit of a chuckle. She, too, only meant it in fun, of course.

"Easy-peasy Squiffer-squeezy; just pay 'em off!" Pearl cackled mischievously. "... Anyway, didja see these things, Marina?" She stepped over to the bin and picked up an incredibly cheap-looking backhoe. "How am I supposed to get any tiny work done with THIS?!"

"Huh?" Marina turned her head to see what Pearl was looking at. "Ohhh. Yeah, I sure did..." she nodded when she was once again greeted by the sight of the poorly-made toys. Taking a step over to the bin, as well, she gazed inside for a moment before reaching in and picking up an equally-cheap bulldozer. "If these were real, they wouldn't be useful for very much, that's for sure," she commented, pausing for a few moments as she simply examined the tiny, flimsy toy.

"Well, obvs! They're TEENY!" Pearl remarked jokingly. "But yeah, they're really, really lame. I bet this one couldn't even scoop whipped cream without its little scooper dealie snapping off."

"Oh, totally not," Marina agreed, staring at the toy backhoe in Pearl's hand with a look of near-disbelief, then back at the bulldozer in her own. "... Welp, I guess we should probably keep looking around..." she somewhat slowly suggested after a short pause, glancing around uncertainly.

"Yeah, who wants to hang around a bin of dumb little toys all day? We came on a mission for SNACKS! Not a trip to the sad junk museum!" " Pearl quickly put the backhoe back, hardly being careful. "C'mon, let's get outta here!" Quickly, she continued marching along in search of the exit. Not only was she already quite tired of this place, herself, but she noticed Marina's gradually-returning uneasiness, too. The sooner they escaped and went on with what they were originally doing, the better.

Marina briefly stood still with a slightly thoughtful expression, still looking at the cheaply-made toy in her hand, before turning around. When she realized that her friend had already started moving again a few moments ago, she gasped softly and took a few hasty steps forward to catch up before she could be left behind. She hadn't even bothered to put the toy bulldozer away before she kept moving; despite how utterly-low quality it was, a part of her still wanted to buy the tiny item for some reason.

Standing on her tiptoes, Pearl scanned the area for any signs of an exit. Finally, she spotted one a small distance away, but it looked completely wrong. It was all open--no doors in sight--and didn't even appear to lead outdoors. It simply connected the store to another indoor area. "WHAT?!" she gasped in surprise, now completely baffled. "Where ARE we?!"

Marina nearly jumped, slightly startled by Pearl's sudden, surprised gasp, and her head quickly swung around to see what she was looking at. When she saw it for herself, her eyes instantly grew wide. "UM... Th-that doesn't look right...!!" she remarked, beginning to feel rather frightened by this strange situation.

Without hesitation, Pearl suddenly dashed towards the exit, needing a better look at things. She couldn't understand what was going on at all; this was definitely not a simple matter of walking into the wrong store by mistake. It was as if they had somehow walked into the wrong reality altogether.
Once she was out of the store, Pearl skidded to a stop and looked around. She was now standing in a very dull shopping mall. "Where'd THIS come from?!" she questioned aloud, feeling simultaneously unsettled and frustrated.

Marina instantly rushed after Pearl as she made her way towards the exit, her still-widened eyes glued straight ahead.
Abruptly stopping as she took her first few steps into the apparent mall, Marina glanced around in complete disbelief. "Wha-...?! ... OK, something's REALLY messed-up, here..." she remarked in a very uneasy tone. Then, happening to anxiously glance down at her hand at that moment, she was reminded of the small toy bulldozer that she had taken with her... right out of the store. "OH! Ummm, hold on a sec...!!" Gasping, she suddenly whirled around and darted back inside, her uneasiness about their situation being temporarily put on hold as she hastily and embarrassedly scrambled to the nearest checkout counter.

"Huh?!" When Marina suddenly dashed back into the store, Pearl spun around to see where she was going in such a hurry. As the item her friend was carrying was quite small, she could hardly see it in the confusion. "Hey! Marinaaa! What's up?!" she called after her, having no idea why she could possibly want to go back to such a place all of a sudden.

The cashier--a human teenager, short in height--appeared somewhat alarmed when Marina rapidly approached. Having never seen an Octoling before, she found her appearance--a tall creature with sharp teeth, very strangely-colored eyes, and long, wriggling tentacles dangling from her head, complete with obvious suckers--somewhat frightening. However, she still had to do her job, and that meant dealing with this strange character, especially having seen what just happened. Unfortunately, she was having trouble gathering any words at all so far, and simply stared ahead, wide-eyed. "Uhhhhhh...!"

Marina barely managed to skid to a halt when she reached the counter, her longest tentacle flopping onto its surface as she just narrowly avoided crashing. Hastily, she dropped the tiny toy in front of the cashier, then gazed down at her with a very nervous and apologetic look. "Um, h-hiii...! I'm sooo sorry about-..." It was at this moment that she quickly noticed something-- the girl, standing right across the counter from her, seemed to match common depictions of a certain creature, which had apparently gone extinct in her world many years ago-- a human.
"WHA...!!" Marina yelped slightly with surprise when she realized that she may very well be face-to-face with a real human. Her tentacle, still flopped atop the counter, began to curl as her nervousness increased, and she found herself briefly speechless, just staring at the cashier with widened eyes and a stunned expression.

The cashier flinched when the bizarre customer nearly collided with the counter, and again when she suddenly let out an alarmed cry for seemingly no reason. For a very uncomfortable moment, she simply stared back up at the strange lifeform, with no idea how to respond. "... A-are you, um... planning on... buying that...?" she slowly asked, sounding almost equally nervous, her gaze shifting briefly to the small item, then gradually locking onto the somewhat huge tentacle resting on the counter before her. The way it twisted about, almost as if having a mind of its own, only made her feel more unnerved. She could only hope desperately that it wouldn't end up slithering any closer.

"... Mhm..." Marina's gaze stayed glued to the cashier in front of her as she cautiously began to respond. "I-is that, um... OK...?" she continued hesitantly, her apologetic expression quickly returning. "I-I wasn't trying to steal it, I promise...! I just got a little, um... d-distracted..." Her expression becoming very embarrassed at this point, her tentacle began to curl around even more-- by complete chance, in the direction of the cashier.