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First Kari, then Dexxy, now it was Princess Cinders' turn!
"Time to pretty you up!" Mayaa preened, sticking a pink bow and white frilly collar on her.

Princess Cinders was not pleased. AT ALL.

I'm dressing up Princess Cinders!
They're wearing: Pink bow, white frilly collar
Do you want a picture of your job well done? Naw
Minis username: AliLV

Yin was going to do it this time. He was going to dress Kari up and make her look pretty and everything would be okay.

He picked up the collar, started toward the mini, and dropped it. Miss Danny had gotten Princess Eva a pink collar, and while this one was purple...

So many feels.

He might have ended up crying on the bake-kitsune.

I'm dressing up Kari!
They're wearing: Gem collar Tears
Do you want a picture of your job well done? UP TO YOU
Minis username: ramenli

Wow, he was really excited. This reminded her of what she had done last year...except this year she would not be seducing and kissing any students. She'd kissed two here. ******** that. No more. One was too many to begin with. She squealed and clapped her hands when Thackery agreed they'd hang out and be friends, bouncing in place. His excitement appeared to be infectious. But the truth was Candace kind of wanted to die a little right now. "It's my favorite too! I ask her to tell me all the time." So Cerberus and kitsunes had a history together? That was interesting. Candace was actually pretty curious now. "Ohohoh! Will you tell it to me? Pleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleeeeeeeeeease?"

Her ears perked up as Thackery pushed trinkets her way. Oooh? What was this? The coin was the first thing she picked up, looking upon it with an awed expression and a small sound of happiness. "Thank you so much, Thackery! Hmmm?" She stood on her tiptoes to see what Thackery was saying she should take. Related to Tephra? Ohh! Was it one of those adorable puppies?! Yesyesyesshewantedoneyesplease! Puppy puppy puppyyyyyy..

..Since when did she like dogs so much? She'd always preferred cats.

"Okay! I'd like that!" Though that would mean magically getting the same golem again. Sorry, Thackery. It's just not possible. She reached out for the jar, giving a little gasp as it was dropped and diving for it. Candace caught it and rolled onto her back so she could sit up, hugging the jar to her chest and looking to see what the problem was. Oh, Melvin. Riiiight. She'd have to tell him to be nicer to minipets when they were away from Thackery..especially if he wanted to study them.

"Kuzco's not used to minipets. His family is really little already so they don't really keep them around for fear of the minipets taking over." She explained as easily as if it were truth.

In his excitement, he didn't consider her request odd in the slightest - a kitsune had asked a favor of him, and he couldn't turn that down!

"Okay, well, um...I'll try to tell it right!" Clearing his throat, Thackery climbed up onto the surface of his booth, sat cross-legged among all of the obols, and began the tale.

"A long, long time ago, one of our Cerberus ancestors was guarding the Gates. He loved his job a whole lot, and couldn't imagine ever doing anything else. He showed up faithfully eeevery day to be sure that the souls were all going where they needed to go, and that nothing terrible got out to bother anyone.

One day, a gorgon," he made a face, but continued nonetheless, "showed up with some kind of stupid excuse and three golden apples from the Garden of the Hesperides. She said she had to get through the gates to visit someone, and that she would pay him one apple to get through. He finally agreed, if she paid him three apples and stayed only three days, and warned her that staying any longer meant he wouldn't let her back out. She entered the Underworld and our ancestor settled down, now watching both the Gates and the apples.

It wasn't long before he was approached by a beautiful kitsune. Her fur was so clean and golden that she seemed to shine just like the priceless apples. She told a sad story of her death and the sister that remained, and our ancestor, so struck by her, decided to abandon his post just long enough to buy her passage out of the Underworld, so she could be with her sister again. He couldn't imagine being separated from his brothers, and knowing that such a beautiful soul was lost in the Underworld would torment him for an eternity.

They traveled together for a very long time, talking about their families and happier times, over fire and brimstone and streams of lava and longing souls. When she couldn't walk any further, he carried her, happy to hold her in his arms. When she felt she might give up all hope of returning to her sister, he urged her to press onward with him, explaining that they'd only have to walk just a little bit longer.

And finally, they were there, standing in front of the cave that would save her. He knew that there was a spirit inside, the shade of Medusa, that held the power of returning souls to Life, and that this was her only chance. They approached the spirit and offered her the apples in return for the favor that they needed.

But the kitsune begged him to let her stay. She might have cared for him like he cared for her, or might have known that something would go really wrong - either way, he insisted, thinking that her return would be the best thing for her. He convinced her to go. So she walked up to the spirit and...and it tricked them!" He curled his hands into the scariest claw-shape that he could imagine and made his best monster-sneer face. Before continuing, he took on a more reverent appearance, acknowledging the saddest part of the story.

"Instead of helping her, the spirit had eaten her right up. It took the apples and used them to return to the surface in place of the kitsune, leaving our ancestor with the kitsune's body. He knew that trying to wake her now would be useless - souls that were eaten up couldn't be led to a happy life in Elysion, or anywhere else at all, really.

And then, when he went back to his post at the Gates, they told him to leave and never come back. Not only had he lost the soul of the kitsune, they said he'd lost two other spirits, and the shade of the Medusa, and that wasn't okay to them. He remembered the gorgon who had come to bargain with him not too long ago, and knew that it was all her fault. It had to have been one big trick to get her own ancestor back. It was too perfectly orchestrated, otherwise. So our ancestor's other brothers took over his post, and he was never allowed to guard the Gates of the Underworld again, and we've never forgiven the children of Medusa for that."

He was bubbling with pride when he finished the story. "It's so sad and romantic. Is that the same story your mother told you? We used to have some gorgons around, but I haven't seen them in a while." His nose wrinkled. "Thankfully. I probably scared them off. So when you do come to Amity, you won't have to worry about them or anything." He shrugged, nonchalant, sure that it had really happened that way.

Since his new friend was holding all of his interest, it was a good thing that she was the one to explain the minipet situation with 'Kuzco'. "Ohhh, okay. I..get it...I think." Why anyone would not want minipets around was beyond him, but he supposed that if it was for the sake of their species, it made sense. Mostly. "Maybe you could have some tiny ones! Like grumpkins! They're really not scary and they wouldn't eat you or whatever."

It was a interesting story, like listening to old lore, but it was about as interesting to him as someone reading from some book on greek mythology. True, he had to start keeping tract of these things since they were no longer fantasy but real, but he was thinking about the reason he was here to begin with. Minipets. Not to hear a story from some dog person who was really into little girls.

Ghouls. Little ghouls. Saliva corrected.

Whatever!

He stood, listening to the boy finishing (Oh wait. BOIL!) and Candace jump up and down and act FAR too friendly. Considering how he met her for the first time, it was a drastic change.

She's faking it.

I guess. Wouldn't be the first time in history a woman did that.

Deciding that this was all a play on how she looked, Melvin rolled his eyes and looked at himself. He was some sort of little ram boy. The most he could play act was being a little kid, and he was put off by the idea.

Still, it was what Candace was doing, and he moved beside her, trying to keep himself from letting out a massive sigh of resignation. "Yeah...Mister." He tried not to gag. "I needs minipets for...all by brothers and sisters." He then looked up, hoping he was at least not screwing this up. "They never had a pet before."

This isn't even my body and I still feel like I need a shower.

You always feel like that.

Mayaa scrummaged through the accessories, trying to pick out what would best suit a fiery pup.
She looked back to see Tephra grinning at her, stray sparks of flames coming from her mouth as she panted.
Mayaa... really didn't feel like getting burned... again.

"Here you go!"
She tacked a bow on her head and quickly pulled her hand back.

I'm dressing up Tephra!
They're wearing: Just a bow~
Do you want a picture of your job well done? No thanks!
Minis username: AliLV

Whoever this kid was, she liked them. Dressing up small animals? CUTIE PIES. Lacking in minipets herself, the girl in the golem was stuck picking a volunteer.
Oh oh that one! The siren chirped. The fox thing that looked like it had candy and was as bouncy as her. Perfect choice. Obviously. Grabbing the stuff with frills and lace, she got to work wiggling the mini into it's new get up. It didn't seem to mind THAT much, wiggling about.

Solia contented herself with trying to play fetch with it.

I'm dressing up Dexxy!
They're wearing: Frilly collar, bow, and shirt, a fancy shirt
Do you want a picture of your job well done? No
Minis username: Vamps

Ariane was no minipet enthusiast, but this was pretty fun. Besides, she liked making minipets look as ridiculous as possible - not a difficult feat, considering the amount of things they had to work with... Seriously? A shirt? She had always thought that as being rather silly looking.

Kari didn't seem to have much of an opinion.

I'm dressing up Kari!
They're wearing: Shirt, bow
Do you want a picture of your job well done? Nope~
Minis username: Dragain