Staring at Stuff [Done]

[The Jenn]

Cauter's shoppe was a regular enough loitering point for Jak that he'd had confidence in his statement to Kaden. He would see the other boy again, or they totally would never meet up. Maybe he would die or something before they happened across one another. That was entirely possible if he was part Corvie, wasn't it? They all seemed totally nuts, or at least that was what a few people had said, and he'd watched bunches of them do weird stuff.

Like the one who owned this shoppe. He was a weirdo. Jak had seen him deny a starving beggar money, but when someone else had asked him for a sandwich, he'd gone out and bought it. A horse and his money. Or... something. When he was bored, he liked seeing how many different guises he could wear into the shoppe and ask the very same question before the horse got weirded out and shooed him away as soon as the question left his lips. A fun game.

The human standing near the shoppe window caught his eye first. He wore the body of a Sorgaire canine, inconspicuous in a crowd, and spent a moment coveting the hat on the man's head. It looked quite dapper. Amhal would look nice in a hat like that, he thought. Only after another moment did he notice the bird standing next to that man and his eyes went huge.

A mad dash for the nearest alley and a quick melting change later, he strolled back out onto the street and into the shoppe. "I tooooold you," he called out in a sing-song tone, red eyes staring at the bird out of the body of a purple-marked Corvie with a very particular angler-dangler waving in front of his face.

[Vyn]

Kaden recognized the voice instantly, he was quite good at voices and faces and things like that, and he quickly spun around to greet his angler-dangler friend. "That's awesome! I knew you'd be here!" The young bird puffed full of excitement as Hatter lifted up from where he'd taken a seat to wait.


Hatter, while he was devilishly good at looking like a completely unobservant fool, was really anything but. Sharp two-toned eyes couldn't help but notice that this little ferret had not been among the crowd mere moments before and was either very good at sneaking or had not been there moments before.

Which left him questioning just how the boy had located his son so quickly upon arriving.

He hadn't even gotten the chance to sit on the well-placed bench he'd discovered before Kaden had sprung up to greet the other boy. Whatever the case, the kid had some sort of uncanny skill for sneaking.

"It's a pleasure to meet you at last!" The Joker grinned widely and tipped his hat to the boy with the 'angler-dangler', just as Kaden had described him. "Kaden's been talking about you, and wonderful trinkets, for days... I'm Hatter, an' you are?" It would be nice to finally know his name since Kaden had absently failed to obtain such information.

Thoughtlessly his two-toned gaze returned from scanning over the ferret's form to resting on those red eyes. Odd, for a Purple Corvie... Hmm.

[The Jenn]

Hah, the bird remembered him just like that! It had to be the angler-dangler. That was the best defining feature ever. Nobody forgot the glowing purple thing bobbing in front of his face, even if they forgot the face itself. Which was fine, since the purple thing was more permanent than the face!

"Yooooou were right 'cause I was right," Jak replied with a raspy laugh that quickly turned to a slight cough, which he choked off quickly. Sometimes changing vocal cords and then jumping right into speaking gave him a nasty tickle, especially when he used his normal speech patterns.

In response to the human's hat-tipping, he stood straighter and flicked the end of his dangler, grinning hugely. What fun! "Hatter. That's awesome. That's beyond awesome! It's just... peeeeeerfect, you know? You can't get any better than that. Says everything in oooone little word. Hatter. It's like your parents were fortune tellers. Which, I dunno, maybe they could have been! Were your parents fortune tellers?"

Belatedly, he added, "I'm Kodi." Since this was the form he took quite often when going out and about as 'himself', he'd long ago decided to use the latter half of his name for it. Everybody knew him as Jak. Only his close-close family knew he had any letters after that at all.

"So. What kind of wonderful trinkets are we going to go and stare at?"

[Vyn]

Hatter laughed fondly as the boy spoke. What fun indeed! And look at the way he wiggled that little mechanical doodad... Very nice! Had Kaden said he'd done it himself?

"Fortune tellers? Oh suits no. My parents were terrible with names, so I named myself. The one my parents gave me is actually quite bland and stupid-sounding, not at all fitting." The Hatter chuckled, wondering if this knowledge would spike the boy's interest or disappoint him. No fortune tellers, but it would leave him speculating for a bit as to what his true name was.

And, if he could read Kaden's wide-eyed stare properly, it meant he'd be harassed relentlessly by him as well. As if to prove him correct the mutt-bird leaned in and grinned. "I'ma find out your boring name one day." Hatter twitched and smiled, not sure if he liked the mischievous hint in the boy's tone.

Luckily Kaden didn't know who Hatter's parents were and so there would be no record searching... he hoped.

"Kodi? Good name! It's a pleasure!"


At the mention of trinkets Kaden sprang away from his dad, his feathers fanning out in great excitement. "I decided I want that Spider! ...So dad's gonna buy it." He grinned up at his dad briefly before looking back to Kodi. "Bet we could get those teeth to, huh?"

Hatter arched a brow slightly, curious now. Spiders and teeth? ...Well, the boy was a scientist at heart as well, he couldn't keep him from experimenting even if the experiments sounded terribly odd.

[The Jenn]

"Aaaaah." Jak nodded sagely at the name comment. He named himself all the time. Every body usually needed its own name and it gave him leeway to be plenty creative on the ones he didn't use as often. Maybe he should name one Footer? Or Hander? Or Pantser? Trouser?

He giggled, thought process thoroughly derailed.

It immediately homed in on Kaden again as soon as they started talking items. "You're getting the spider? That's aaaawesome! So excellent! Yay Dad!" He grinned and patted Hatter enthusiastically on the shoulder, his bipedal form easily tall enough to allow him access. "I've got a little money on me. Met up with my Graaandpa not too long ago and he gave us enough for a house! Can you believe that? We have a house now! Our oooown! It's so cool! Little and dirty and ratty and so much better than the garbage heap we were living in before." He started into the shop as he rambled, gesticulating with both hands as his dangler bobbed with the movement.

[Vyn]

Hatter allowed a pleased grin to slide onto his features. Jak appeared to be quite happy with this whole thing, ...in fact, he was probably certain the boy had been the one to push Kaden's intrigue from "Ooo, shiny!" to "Dad, buy it!". Oh well, at least he was making friends and not stealing.

Affectionately he ruffled Kaden's crest, watching as the boy grimaced to the affection.

"Yeah! I thought about it and I really want it... I love crawly bugs and I bet the spider does something awesome. Magical powers and stuff, my mom got a leg from here and it did all sorts of weird things... Gross, but weird." He shrugged, Lowland leg or not he adored his mom. And then Kodi was talking about Grandpa's money and... a hovel of a house... but he seemed really happy anyway. "Well, that's good! Having your own place, no matter what it's like has to be cool." The adolescent bird glanced sidelong up at his dad but Hatter really had no control over the boy's random housing.

It was mostly his Mother and her word was Law to Kaden.

Though Hatter did have to wonder where this boy's parents were? His grandfather had given him the money? Odd life he lead, though Hatter could never judge in that regard.

Following the boys into the shop, Hatter allowed his gaze to slide around the room. Good deal of interesting trinkets, though the boys were right: at the front of the shop, up in their protective cases, were the 'show items'. Except the teeth that Kaden had also rambled about were not there, just the jar with the big green spider husk.

"Good thing you chose the spider, Kade, that's all that's here."

Kaden stopped dead in his tracks, looking up at the shelf that had contained both items. ...Well that didn't seem fair at all! "Huh."

[The Jenn]

Jak capered a little as the bird continued to talk, red eyes focused on Kaden as he accidentally bumped into one or two of the shoppe's other patrons. Oops. He was still concentrating on the bird.

"Aww, yeah, crawly bugs are great. They taste reeeeally good if you can crisp 'em in a fire, but if you can't then the crunch is still fun. And what do you mean, our own place? Like, not belonging to somebody else? It'd be niiiice to have other people in the house, but the three of us are juuuust fine." He and Amhal and Dell did quite well together, all things considered. He just wished there were more people to talk to sometimes. At least Dell was always up for a chat now. He giggled.

When the human spoke, his head whipped around to stare at the shelf and he seemed to visibly deflate a little bit. "Awww. Maaaaan. That's no fun. Well. It's fun for you. So yay! Fun for you!" Just as quickly, his demeanor perked right back up and he bounced on his feet once again, grinning like a maniac. "It's okay, I'm suuure I'll find plenty of stuff later. The garbage aaalways has something interesting, and maybe if I go back by that one barber I can find some teeth to chew on."

[The Jenn]

((I'm afraid that my muse for kid!Jak is kind of dead... would you mind if we ended this?))

[Vyn]

(That'd be fine.<3)