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The Mitsuwa Market was a little hole-in-the-wall in urban Destiny City. Robin visited it probably once every month; it was in her rotation of weird places to find weird food, along with about four other markets dotted around the city. Every time she visited it, she never knew quite what she was looking for - only what her hopeful end result would be. Her meeting a stranger - someone interesting, she usually hoped, or at least with hidden potential - and convincing them to share a memorable snack with her. Sometimes this was a basis for a new friendship for her, sometimes not - but it was always a new story, and every time she got her allowance, she looked eagerly forward to the start of a new adventure.

Robin had been innocently browsing her way through the shelves of the candy section, when something had caught her eye. It was bizarre - some sort of big-eyed novelty sushi chef kitten plushie, sort of nauseatingly adorable with its fuzzy little paws and one winking eye. What toys were doing in her candy section, Robin didn't know - or at least, she didn't until she realized that it was packaged with something. And when she saw what that something was, her attitude abruptly shifted.

Two words: Wasabi. Lollipops.

It... was... glorious. Nervously, Robin licked her lips. It was like a cheesy old Christmas movie, capturing the moment when Ralphie first laid eyes on that Red Ryder BB gun. Even as that small voice of sanity was screaming you'll burn your tongue off, kid!, Robin's greedy hands were wrapping around the stuffed animal. Taped up to its silly little paws were five - count them, five - sticks of taste bud-destroying perfection.

And lucky Robin, she'd gotten her hands on the very last one in stock! The grin on her face was utterly foolish as she contemplated the adventure she'd have, trying to find someone that would dare to eat this treat with her. It would almost have to be a guy, she mused as she began wandering away from the aisle; someone who she could challenge on a basis of well, if a sweet little girl like ME isn't afraid to try it, you shouldn't be either....

Hah! This was gonna be great!

Robin had been reading the tiny, Engrished label attached to the stuffed kitty as she walked, rendering her totally oblivious to her surroundings as she pondered what "sporifical" was supposed to mean. With T-minus .05 seconds left before the collision, though, she had finally spared a moment to glance at where she was going -- and seen the giant rabbit of doom looming over her.

Too late to brake, too late to get out of the way. Robin barely had time to slow down and gasp a truncated "Holy--", and then it was too late. She simply squeezed her eyes shut and waited for the end to come, thinking with her would-be final thoughts, I knew it would be the Easter bunny in the end!

Well, as it turned out, she did not meet her untimely demise in that moment. That giant bunny made for a soft impact. In fact, of all the times Robin had literally run into something in her life (a number which was disturbingly high), this was certainly the cushiest collision in memory. That didn't mean, of course, that Robin didn't have to react out of proportion - the girl fell straight down onto her backside, even though she probably could have stumbled back and stayed standing - but she felt vaguely let-down in the end. "Ow," she said, without much feeling. It really hadn't hurt that much - more disappointments!

Somewhat embarrassed now, Robin collected the sushi cat off the floor and pulled herself up to her feet. The other girl seemed to be looking at her in a peculiar manner, especially her messy hair.... "Uhm." Robin tried pushing a long lock out of her eyes and smiled. It didn't feel right to fly off the handle at this girl - maybe there was a certain amount of comradery instilled by the pink hair club - so she opted for complimentary instead. "That's a nice bunny. You ought to teach him to pay attention to where he's walking, though." Okay, so maybe it was complimentary-slash-teasing. Still, Robin seemed very friendly about it - that counted for something!

All was forgiven when the offender proved to have a sense of humor. It was amazing what slights could be forgiven, so long as that was true - at least, in Robin's eyes. If Serah failed to actually apologize, well, so did Robin, and she didn't seem to notice either way.

"Sure am!" the girl chirped, a grin sweeping onto her face. Nothing could have made her so cheerful, so quickly, than a reminder of her frickin' awesome find of the day. Showing the package to the other girl, she began gushing - "Wasabi lollipops, can you believe it? I mean, seriously. This isn't just weird. This is the brand of weird where, I bet that if you go to Japan right now and showed this to somebody, even they'd take a look at it and go whoa that is weird. Except in Japanese, right?"

If you were just paying attention to the words being said, you might think that Robin was joking around. But one look at her face and you would realize, she was dead serious. She thought these things were weird - and, rather than putting her off, it made her excited. It was their selling point, screw all else! If she even fully noticed the adorable stuffed cat attached to them, she made no mention of it.

"What about you? Are you buying that bunny for a birthday present or something?" Random shot in the dark, but it would have made sense to Robin. She wasn't an avid toy collector, after all; why would she think that someone might be buying a stuffed bunny, just because they loved stuffed bunnies?

"Oh, god no," came Robin's flat denial. "You kidding me? I can barely handle Tabasco sauce!" And yet there she was, stroking the wasabi lollipops with a gentle love. These might be a couple warning signs of insanity, right here....

Of course, Serah was the teenager that was still in the stuffed animal-loving stage. Maybe she wouldn't have room to criticize.

Anyway, Robin had a ready explanation for her own strange behavior. "It's a game, you see? Liking the food doesn't matter. It's sort of... a social experiment, or something." The girl smiled then, as though describing it in such terms excused any oddness attached with the action. "I find weird things that people normally wouldn't eat, and then I search around until I find someone that looks right for it and convince them to eat it with me. It's hard sometimes, you know, because people don't really want to trust strangers -" Not even harmless friendly adorable ones like Robin, her pout seemed to say, "- but it's a lot of fun in the end, and sometimes I meet really interesting people!"

See? She wasn't quite so insane as she looked!... sometimes.

"So - you collect rabbits in particular, or just anything cute?" Robin wondered aloud. Self-absorbed as the girl might be, she was still the sort to pay attention to the places and people around her - Serah seemed to be enraptured with Robin's purchase-to-be, and she was pretty sure that it wasn't because she wanted the lollipops. Robin's finger grazed the side of the stuffed kitty; maybe she was thinking she saw a way to make a new friend?

"In the store? Nahhhh." Robin was walking with Serah anyway, make no doubt about it - but she certainly was not sold on the idea of finding her lollipop buddy here. "I mean, if someone's already in the store, the food obviously isn't that weird to them. The trick is to find someone who lives out of 7-11 and Burger King, and convince them to try it. It's not a game if it doesn't have challenge, right?"

It also wasn't a game if it didn't have rules, but Robin didn't see any need to delve into those just then - things like she wasn't allowed to trick people into eating it by telling them it was something else, or place them under extreme duress until they ate it. (Her mere company, though considered torture by some, was not excluded by those rules.) Not finding people that were already eating weird food was more of a guideline than a rule, true, but she stuck to her guns on it nonetheless.

"Oh yeah, by the way: My name's Robin," she mentioned, purely as a by-word. "And you know, I don't really have a place for stuffed animals. So, I dunno - do you like the cat? I have to buy it to get the wasabi lollipops, but I'm sure it could find a better home, so...."

Robin's face split into a grin. "Comrades, eh? I like it!" And, without any delay (or even a spare thought for the dignity she might be damaging), the girl shifted suddenly into an overdone, Hollywood accent that may or may not have been representing Russian, but was hopefully not meant to impress anyone with her acting skills. "ZO, COHM-RADE," she decreed as they reached the front counter at last, plopping down her purchase in front of a mystified and somewhat amused cashier. "Vee shoulkt to conduckt zee trahn-za-chun, and zhen ve shall to plan ze rise of ze next Pink Scare!" She then laughed a haughty laugh, just the sort that the stereotypical movie bad guy would be expected to before pressing the button that would seal James Bond's fate.

The clerk quietly rang up the purchase during Robin's theatrics, wisely choosing not to involve herself with these strange comrades any more than necessary. "Eight ninety-nine, please," the woman behind the counter requested during a minor break in the conversation.

"CAPITALIST PIG!" Robin accused - but slapped down a ten-dollar bill just the same. The clerk accepted the money and counted out the change, eager to see this customer out on her way. But even after receiving a receipt, of course, Robin wasn't leaving just yet - she had to wait for Serah to get rung up as well!

"Uh... yeah!" The pink-haired girl sounded a bit befuddled in her agreement, as though something else were occupying her mind. It was difficult to be sure - but Robin felt very confident that she had just been an unwitting witness to a battle of psionics. Something about the way those two had locked eyes, it was like the stand-off before a samurai showdown; and then came the moment that they broke contact, and Robin swore, she could almost hear the clash of energy. As they walked from the store, Robin couldn't quite help glancing over her shoulder, just to see whether the clerk crumbled as they left.

The lady remained on her feet. Robin felt a sense of profound disappointment.

"Lemme - urf! - get these things off," she muttered, trying to tug free the small pack of lollipops from the cat. They were fastened by means of two twist-ties to the cat's paws; a few seconds of fruitless pulling later, Robin discovered this face, and undid the fasteners. The candy came free - and, grinning, Robin waved the cat toward Serah. "Here you go, he's all yours!"

"Hey, awesome!" Robin accepted the return gift with great enthusiasm - there was never a bad time for candy, after all, and the chances were pretty good that Serah was right on the money. Robin's spice tolerance was mediocre at best - having something else around wouldn't be a bad idea! Assuming that these lollipops survived long enough to be put to use, that was. Robin was already unwrapping the root beer flavored one for immediate consumption. "Mmm...."

The rest went into her jacket pocket, mingling with their wasabi-flavored kin; and, in the same motion, Robin drew out her cell to check the time. It was starting to pull into late afternoon; her mother would be just starting to fix dinner now, and unless she was otherwise excused, Robin would be expected home by the time it was ready. "Ahh, damn. Time to head home. But hey, Serah - maybe I could get your phone number, and we can hang out sometime?" She held her cell at the ready, hopeful.