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 Posted: Fri Feb 10, 2017 5:48 pm
"A lot of entities haven't," Dari said. He was sort of a strange case himself, but it was still true. A lot decided they didn't like human customs, too. "It's fun, though."
Toby smiled and kissed Maia on the cheek right after.
'See, Maia's one of them," Dari said.
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Posted: Fri Feb 10, 2017 7:57 pm
Kevin loved Christmas, he'd already decided. The sights and sounds--how happy his friends were. They were out and about town today; peering into the shops, sometimes going inside if they saw anything interesting. There were a lot...of pretty weird things, the kelpie thought. Curios, Cody called them. They didn't seem particularly useful.
And none of them did anything particularly interesting. Lame! Oh, the hanging crystal that made rainbows on the wall was pretty cool... He purchased that for Maia. It seemed like a girl thing.
He found a card, though... Maybe that'd be good enough? Maybe he could get Toby a gift card to the arcade or something they could do together.
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Posted: Fri Feb 10, 2017 8:02 pm
Everyone was trying to stay out of Kevin's way. The people who had known about this trip well ahead of time weren't really looking for gifts; they'd already bought them. That didn't mean they weren't looking, of course.
Michael had been amusing himself with customers and curios mostly, much to the opposite end of the spectrum from Kevin. As of the moment he had struck the chimes that sounded when the front door opened and was watching the clerk furrow her brow at the unmoved door.
"Do you see anything you like?" Dari asked Kevin quietly, as if they had a secret.
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Posted: Fri Feb 10, 2017 8:15 pm
Michael seemed to be having fun. Excellent. Maia was grinning; the clerk's expression was priceless.
"What do you think Toby would like?" Kevin asked, in an urgent whisper. He'd gotten most everyone's gifts back in Arizona, but what did you get someone who seemed happy with what he had? And how did you express how much they meant to you with one gift?
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Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2017 5:05 pm
"He's hard to shop for," Dari admitted. For a moment he considered asking Michael, but he was pretty sure he knew the answer that'd come. "Don't worry so much about what it is as what it means. He likes personal things, and things with sentimentality. Even if it's just something to decorate the house with."
An old alarm clock, likely in disrepair and entirely unusable, began to ring from within the shelving.
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Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2017 5:20 pm
"I don't know how to be all feelingsly!" Kevin complained. He looked around. "There's nothing good enough here. Want to go look somewhere else with me?"
The clerk stiffened at the noise. She slowly turned around and looked towards the alarm clock. She knew for a fact that that clock didn't work. She went to turn it off.
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Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2017 5:28 pm
Obviously Kevin wasn't so bad at feelings, first for calling Toby "Dad" and second for recognizing immediately that there was nothing in the shop that meant enough.
"Sure," Dari said, 'Where do you want to go?" They were in a prime area for shops one after the other. Walking somewhere would be easy.
As soon as the clerk lifted the clock, it stopped ringing. She hadn't had to touch anything. The hands on the face, though, had begun to tick and tock, beginning randomly at about 3:53, where they had been sitting for perhaps years.
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Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2017 5:48 pm
"I don't know," Kevin said. There were a lot of interesting looking stores. "Where do you think we should look next?" He asked. "The store next door?"
The clerk stared. She hurriedly set the clock aside, placing a note on it that read: sold as is.
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Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2017 5:52 pm
"Sure. Unless it's a boutique," Dari joked. He waved to Maia. "We're heading next door!" People were pretty scattered as it was.
As soon as the clerk returned to the front register, the clock stopped ticking. Michael was pretty pleased with himself.
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Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2017 6:19 pm
"Okay! Have fun!" Maia waved and smiled.
"Blegh. It better not me, I hate shopping for clothes!" Kevin led Dari out the door, and once he'd made sure the store next door wasn't a clothing store, headed inside. "C'mon Dari! We've got to find something good enough."
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Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2017 6:23 pm
Dari followed Kevin into the next store and surveyed the shelves. It was hard to tell outright if something would be meaningful to Kevin. He was only a teenager and not the most predictable one as it was. It didn't hurt to look, though. Dari assumed that the kid needed less help than he just needed company.
"Does anything strike you?" Dari asked.
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Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2017 6:41 pm
"No," Kevin looked distressed. "Why is shopping for him so hard? I got everyone else something!" He scowled and stormed down one of the aisles. It was filled with little glass trinkets. Psh. Girly things.
"Dari! You know him best! Help me find something good."
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Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2017 6:44 pm
Dari rolled the inside of his lower lip against his teeth and glanced around the room. He laughed and pointed to a porcelain wolf of middling size.
"It doesn't look much like him, but there's a wolf there." Then he continued through. When he came to the back of the shop, there were stands with dozens of cards or different brands stacked neatly from top to bottom.
"You could write him out a card. He'd like that."
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Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2017 7:03 pm
Kevin shook his head after studying the porcelain wolf. No, he didn't think Toby would like that. Maybe as a gag... but how did one express feelings with a gift anyhow?
He followed Dari to the back of the shop. "Will you help me write him a card, then?" He asked. "I've never written one." He selected one and showed it to Dari. "Do you think he'll like it?"
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Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2017 7:05 pm
"Sure," Dari said, but again he felt like Kevin didn't need a helping hand so much as he needed someone to sit beside him while the wrote it. Would he get to know what the kelpie had written before he gave it to Toby? He doubted he'd get to know after. "We could get him a gift card too, maybe. I'm sure somewhere has them. You could buy him a certificate for somewhere you can go together."
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