Card Games [Kari]

[The Jenn]

Tabby slowly twirled in place, pretending that the toy shop was her room and that these toys were hers. She was just sharing them with everyone because she was such a nice person and everyone deserved toys as nice as these. The Card Games toy store was one of the older buildings in the city, a permanent structure along the edge of the Bazaar that had passed hands between several businesses before its current incarnation came to exist.

It was also full of toys! Nice ones. The kind of toys that kids begged for months to get during the holidays. Mommy said they couldn't afford toys like that because they had to spend the money on food and things, but they regularly trolled the dumpster behind the shop for parts they could use to put together new and exciting toys. Lots of arms went into the trash, for some reason. She'd made herself a very special arm-monster with a bouncy ball, a doll head, and lots of superglue. Its name was Handy and it liked to fly because it didn't have any feet to walk.

Mommy liked to bring her here. He said the store was a good babysitter and he would let her come in and play with the toys for as long as he needed to be in the Bazaar so long as she never left the store with anyone. And that was fine. All of the toys were inside the store! Why would she leave?

Mr. Tibs was a nice owner, too. He didn't bother her as long as she was quiet and didn't break any of the toys, and she wanted to be in the store so she listened very well.

[Kari Muffin]

Castiel didn't listen as well as she should have. When it came to nanny's they tended to say one thing and she would do the absolute opposite. "Sitting still" ended up turning into her wandering off. On the bright side she always remained close to the area that she happened to get lost in.

Just so the nanny's wouldn't completely freak out. And Mom and Dad wouldn't yell at her for wandering off a few stores down or make her wear a bell.

This was one of the few times that she had been in the area, and her attention was quickly grabbed the the toy store. The building looked interesting, and she couldn't help but giggle at the title. That was enough inspiration for her to walk into the store and investigate.

It was a lot bigger on the inside. She had no idea where to start as she wandered down the aisles, clutching the small bag of money that was hidden under her shirt. Maybe she should get something for her siblings?

The girl didn't expect someone to be around the corner, so she almost ran into the other girl. She was nimble enough to avoid a collusion, but since she had hardly developed a sense of grace she ended up falling flat on her bottom.

"Ow..." she said lamely as she rubbed her backside. Probably should say something else. "Um.... Hi! Sorry about that!"

[The Jenn]

A sudden movement in her peripheral vision startled Tabby into dancing backwards on her birdy feet, head turning to look in confusion at a human who had just fallen down. A young human who looked to be a girl like her, and maybe not much older than her, in a beautiful dress...

"Ohh, that's alright! You didn't do anything besides hurt your butt. I'm sorry about that. Your butt, I mean. But you have such pretty hair. I'm glad you didn't fall on it. And I love your glasses. My Mommy has glasses a lot like that. And your dress is almost prettier than your hair. Are you one of the girl realm? You look like one with all the pink and purple and white and yellow. Hi! I'm Tabby. What's your name?"

One red-tipped hand waved happily by her muzzle in a greeting while the other tucked shyly behind her back. She loved talking to some of the other kids in the store. If she was super friendly then Mr. Tibs didn't mind either.

[Kari Muffin]

The little girl carefully brushed herself off, a tear threatening to trickle down her cheek at the pain her her backside. Daddy was so much more graceful than she was. Why couldn't she be like that?

Of course her attention snapped to the girl that was in front of her. "Thank you!" She said to the variety of compliments that the feline mix was giving out to her. She really talked fast and it was almost difficult for her to keep up. But then again Castiel was just as fast paced sometimes.

"Yep! I'm from Yarrow! You look a lot like my Daddy, but you don't have a binding like other Torquehelms.... and you don't have a pretty bit of gold either." That was weird. She had funny white bat wings with colors on them. Was that because she was a Highlander? Didn't Daddy say that Torquehelms were supposed to have wings if they were "cursed?"

"I'm Castiel! It's nice to meet you Tabby!"

[The Jenn]

"My Mommy said I don't have a binding because I'm not Torque enough for a binding," Tabby replied with enough pep to choke a squirrel. "I have gold, though. Look! Swirlies! And it's soooo nice to meet you too! I love meeting people here. It's such a nice store. Look at all this stuff!" Her arms flung wide to encompass the store at large. By the grace of gods that looked after little children, she just managed to miss a display with hand-painted dolls having a tea party by inches.

"Ohhh, oops. Nope. None of that." Her arms swung behind her back and she clasped them tightly, rocking a little back and forth instead. She didn't want to get in trouble. "So are you here to buy toys? Actually take some home? Some of them are sooo nice. One of them's even haunted! That one's been here a while. But shh, don't tell Mr. Tibs. He doesn't like you talking about haunted toys in the store. He gets kind of upset."

[Kari Muffin]

Castiel blinked with mild confusion. But hadn't Grandma said that if a Torquehelm had wings they needed to be bound? She had gone on and on about it... and Castiel hadn't honestly listened to all of it. Her sister was a pure Torquehelm while her brother was barely Torquehelm so they had to worry about that stuff, not her. "But... you have Highlander gold! That's different!" She said with a very matter-of-fact voice. She knew the difference between Highlanders and Torquehelm gold. She was growing up in the Highlands after all.

A gasp escaped her as the girl threw her arms out, narrowly missing the display. And her parents called her accident prone? She may have found her match! "Yeah I'm here to see if I can buy something for my brother and sister. I have no idea where to start with this place being so huge." And wait? did she say there was a toy that was haunted? But ghosts were just fairy tales right? "Can I see the haunted toys? I've never seen one before!"

[The Jenn]

"It's still gold," Tabby said with a shrug, not really caring. That whole "Torquehelm curse thing" was something Mommy mentioned in passing before and told her she'd never have to worry about, and so she didn't. Mommy knew about these things.

"And sure, I can show you the haunted toy. But please don't tell? I don't want to get in trouble. I like coming here. Mommy said the store's my babysitter while he's working. I hope I might be able to go to school sometime soon. Mommy says I'm still too little. But I'd like to meet lots more kids, like I do here. I'd love to have a brother or a sister. You're really lucky. Mommy says we have lots and lots of family, but only my uncles live with us. And Mili, cause Mommy sort of adopted her, but she's a grown-up too. And there's a ghost in the alley, but he's not very talkative. C'mon. She's this way."

Leaving her meaning vague, the girl twirled around on one foot and led Castiel after her, ducking around one or two isles and going halfway down before stopping in front of a particular toy soldier. It wore the uniform of the Hearts militia.

"She lives in the soldier," the girl said with a wistful note to her voice, looking at the carved wooden figure. "Her name is Marnie. She said her Daddy made the toy and this was her favorite, but then they all died. She didn't tell me how. She said it hurt. And now she's haunting the soldier. I've wished I could buy him forever, but we only have money for food and things, even on the holidays, so she has to stay here until someone else buys her. But at least I get to talk to her until then, sometimes. Not right now. I can't see her right now. But I know she's there. She's probably watching us and sad that I can't see her. I think she's lonely most of the time, too."

On she talked, not really paying too much attention to whether or not Castiel followed, cared, or even listened to what she'd said.

[Kari Muffin]

"I swear I won't tell another living soul!" The girl said crossing her heart with a wide grin. She was good at keeping secrets. Mostly because no one besides Conall payed attention to her when she went on one of her mini rants. Of course she didn't talk as half as much as Tabby. "I have a super big family actually. I have lots of half brothers and sisters but they don't really pay attention to me and my siblings. And I can't meet one of them because she apparently emits poisonous gas that can kill me." A simple fact that she found utterly terrifying and needed to share.

Castiel happily followed the girl. She wanted to see the mysterious haunted toy that she was talking about more than anything. And when they arrived, with Castiel slightly out of breath, she was surprised at how utterly plain the toy was.

"You really talk a lot," Castiel bluntly stated as she stared at the toy. It was a Hearts solider... "Where did she used to live?" Maybe the ghost wanted to go home?

[The Jenn]

"Yeah, I do," Tabby agreed cheerfully, completely missing the fact that the other girl's statement might not have been meant in the best light. "Mommy says that the sound of my voice is so pretty, I should talk as much as I want."

Attention returning to the soldier, she gingerly reached out a hand to stroke the top of its helmeted head. "She never told me. She doesn't like to talk about her family a lot, which is a shame, since I love talking about family. But she knows some fun games, when I get to talk to her. She used to play a lot with her brothers, she said, and that's about all I know about them. Poor Marnie. If you're listening, I wish I could hear you!"

This last was said to the store at large, but in a very quiet voice. No sense calling anyone's attention to them when she didn't have to.

[Kari Muffin]

Castiel meant almost nothing by her blunt statement. She was just prone to bluntly stating some facts. Her parents had often told her to hold her tongue about particular things, but she did a poor job of listening.

The girl bounced on her heals as Tabby spoke. So what did she know about the ghost? Was she just making it up? Everyone said ghosts didn't exist, but where did all those scary stories come from? Castiel frowned for a moment as she looked at the doll. She could take it home or... she could be nice.

It was always fun being nice.

She carefully picked up the doll. "If I buy this for you... can I meet you again here?" She to Tabby with a curious and hopefully expression on her face. In reality the girl had very few friends. And since she was sick more often than most of the children she didn't see the few friends as often as she liked.