Mallside 10

[Purple Eagle]

[Shopping Shifters]

It's because Manja is too busy looking at all the new stuff that she has never seen before ever in her entire life. She's been kissed before. She's never seen whatever that thing is before. Or that thing. Or that thing. Or that thing. Or that thing. Or that thing. Or that thing. Or that thing. Or that thing. Or that thing. Or that thing. Or that thing. Or that thing. Or that thing. Or that thing.

Since Marco clearly wants to run around and look at things and maybe even grab some of them, Carlie reaches out so she can take Manja back.

"She's a baby," Carlie says as a reminder. "What would you even buy for her? She probably wouldn't even care."

[Shopping Shifters]

Marco is a bit unwilling to let go of Manja just yet, but hands her over. This way he can better admire the inherent cuteness of a baby staring at all the new things, colours and shapes.

"A cute rattle! Maybe learning blocks? A plushie? Stroller toy? One of those?" He rattles off options, pointing to a picture for the last one. "Or legos... no, choking hazard. Anything for my liddle cousin, ey?" He says, looking at Carlie with hopeful eyes, his bunny ears standing up on end.

[5a Violista]

[Restaurante Enchante]

Harley's player would have forgotten about the teleporters, if another character didn't use it recently.
Making things disappear in a hammerspace is really cool. She wishes she could do that.

"Hey, that's no fair!" Harley-Lamia protests. "You can't use dirty tricks like that." Following his cue, she picks up a menu as well, and looks at it. "Besides, I don't have any foundation in their skintone or any unbroken masks, so it'd be really obvious you were talking to me, anyway." Since, no matter how hard she tries, she can't remove her scars by shapeshifting. She leaves the reason why unstated, of course.

She looks at a different section of the menu. "Anything you recommend?" the shapeshifter asks.


[Shopping Shifters]

"She's not old enough for any of those," Carlie repeats for the...actually, she hasn't kept track. "If you want to get her something, you can. But, if you do, it will sit in storage for at the very least a few months. You just have to accept that she's not as old as you think she is."

Carlie walks over to a thing that is very shiny, so that Manja can look into it.

[Reinholdt]

[Restaurante Enchante]

"Whaaaat? Dirty tricks? MEEE?" Reinholdt pretends to look offended. "I don't think it's a dirty trick to brag to others about what a cute, amazing girlfriend I have." Maybe. But saying it like that is definitely a dirty trick.

He ends up shrugging though. "I'll be honest. I was just going to order the thing on here that looked the least pronounceable, pretend I knew what it was, and presume that it is the most romantic option. Then again, I'm pretty sure this place doesn't have any options that AREN'T romantic, so it's an easy bet." Rein can't lose!

[5a Violista]

[Restaurante Enchante]

Harley pouts to counteract his faux-offense. "Says the guy who put a lot of effort into planning a romantic dinner with his girlfriend. If she's cute and amazing then what does that say about him for doing all that?"

On the menu, she spots some words that she presumes that she knows how to pronounce. "You mean like croziflette? But a dessert of mousse de maracujá would also be pretty romantic." To be honest, she doesn't know of a croziflette would actually be romantic or not. But it sounds romantic, at the very least.
That artichoke blue cheese fettuccine also looks good, but most of those words are pretty pronounceable.

Her player would also recommend shrimp or salmon because a lot of those recipes pop up when searching 'romantic dishes', but Harley isn't really a fan of seafood for some unexplained reason.

[Reinholdt]

[Restaurante Enchante]

Reinholdt ponders that one for a moment. "Hmmm... I suppose that would say the guy is head over heels for her." He thinks for a moment longer. "Which, if I'm honest, is an expression I don't fully understand."

Cats will never get it.

"It's a little early for dessert, unless you ate already and want to go light." Rein tried to avoid it, but it's possible she snacked first and he timed it badly. "Croziflette for me." The artichoke blue cheese fettuccine is exceptionally appealing though. "You?"

Rein's long since learned about Harley's fish aversion by now. Given how much he loves to eat fish. It was a point of contention for awhile, but he avoids it for her when they're together. And snatches it up anytime he's eating solo.

[5a Violista]

[Restaurante Enchante]

Tsk.
He thought too much about it and managed to avoid her trap.
"Probably has something to do with cartwheels, I think," Harley says. "Like, so in love with someone that you're just doing cartwheels around them, so your head keeps on going over your feet over and over." No wonder cats wouldn't get it: they can't do cartwheels. Lamias wouldn't get it either, since they don't have heels.

Harley shakes her head because she hasn't eaten yet. In fact, the last time she ate was before she went into the library which was...how long ago? So long ago. "I'll have the same," she says.

A really important question that needs to be figured out soon: when it comes to taste in fish, who does Manja take after? This is probably something they need to figure out as soon as possible, so that Reinholdt will know whether he can take her on secret fish-eating missions.

[Reinholdt]

[Restaurante Enchante]

Oh no! Rein is pretty good at disarming traps though. Or so he keeps claiming.
"You know, I don't think I've ever done a cartwheel." Rein's not been in fey form nearly long enough to have explored all the random flips and acrobatics he could do. Well he could have, it just didn't occur to him. Much easier to turn back into a cat and jump with a tail.

Rein also needs to know so he can take Manja on fishing trips. Teach her how to shoot the fish before eating it!
It's called Dwarven Fishing.

"So... I hope you otherwise had a relaxing day?" Rein asks, hitting that awkward point in between the exciting stuff where he's not sure what to talk about next to fill the gap.

[Purple Eagle]

[Shopping Shifters]

"She's not old enough for any of those," Carlie repeats for the...actually, she hasn't kept track. "If you want to get her something, you can. But, if you do, it will sit in storage for at the very least a few months. You just have to accept that she's not as old as you think she is."

Carlie walks over to a thing that is very shiny, so that Manja can look into it.

[Shopping Shifters]

"Well, as long as I get my lil cousin something she can use eventually, it'll be worth it, ey Titi?" Marco shoots back, not missing a beat. He skips away and returns, having chosen the rattle. "Like this one! Does she have a favourite colour yet? I can go and choose another one! Maybe I can buy something for you too, ey?"

[5a Violista]

[Restaurante Enchante]

Harley just needs to lay better traps, then, so that they can verify whether he evaded that one with just luck or if it really was his skill that let him escape it.

She puts back the menu, since she won't be needing it.
"There's lots of people who haven't done cartwheels, so you're not alone." Harley, of course, has done a cartwheel before. "I've done several, though. Even different types of cartwheels. It's a little hard with a tail like this, though." Having such a long tail does make it a little hard.

"Yeah, it was pretty relaxing," Harley says. "Was reading a book that I've been wanting to read for a while. Didn't really get that far into it, though. Left it in the library, I think."



[Shopping Shifters]

"She doesn't have a favorite color yet," Carlie says. Since she's still a baby. Also, apparently, cats don't seem to really care about colors, sometimes. Carlie steps to the side so that Manja can look at and reach towards something else.

Carlie looks over at the rattle. "Sure, that one would be fine."
And then adds, "You don't need to buy me something if you don't want to."

[Reinholdt]

[Restaurante Enchante]

Reinholdt starts motioning with his hands. "Yeah? Wouldn't a tail make it easier? Like you could just curl up into a big long ball and roll... oh. I guess that wouldn't be a cartwheel, it'd just be a forward roll." This is tricky!

"Speaking of, I haven't seen you like this before." Rein reaches down to rub one hand along Harley's tail, getting a feel for the unique texture. "What's your name while a Lamia?" Or at least the one Harley gives out to people that aren't Rein.

"Yeah? That's good. I thought about giving you a gift certificate to a massage parlor, but decided to be a cheapskate and do it myself when we get home. What was the book about?" Rein inquires.

[5a Violista]

[Restaurante Enchante]

Harlamia nods: "Plus, doing it with a long tail means you'd have to build up a lot of momentum and it'll last a long time as the tail has to keep on moving after you've stopped." See? It's not easy! There's a reason there's still lots of people who have never done a cartwheel.

The texture, of course, feels like smooth scales and muscle. She presses back up against his hand, and moves her tail a little.. "Last time I did it, I went by Coral Asmodeus," she says. "But the appearance wasn't quite exactly the same. Different ears, didn't have scales here -" she points on her face "-different pattern, different body type, different voice..." Maybe a few other things, too. None of the 'sssssss' as part of speaking, though, since that really irritated her because of how much it reminded her of her mother.
Harley shrugs.
"Considering retiring her, since she just disappeared a year ago, and it'll be difficult to pick things back up. I'll bet nobody misses her, anyway."

At around this point, both their food arrives.

To be honest, a home-massage sounds a lot better than a professional one, even if the professional knows what they're doing.
"It's just a pretty standard romance book," Harley says. "Well...it kind-of is a comedy of manners and the main guy and main girl actually haven't met each other - they keep on communicating through other people and the mystery of the other person is what draws them together. But, like, there's already foreshadowing that they're going to end up breaking apart for that exact same reason. At the pace it's going, that's going to happen about at the halfway point, so I'm actually a little curious to how the last half's going to be. Like, is one of them going to fall in love with the intermediary characters? Or will they finally get over themselves and accept that they need to actually get to know the other person instead of just loving the idea of them? Or is the story going to go in a completely different direction? Is their romance just the backdrop for the growing relationship between their intermediaries? There's also the occasional hints that something's off, but I still don't know what. I've never read this author before so I don't really know what their style is, but..."
Harley, realizing that she was just rambling on and on about the book she's been reading - especially since there's food already here right in front of them - and unsure if he's actually interested in it or not, suddenly stops. She looks down. "S-sorry. Because of how closely I need to watch Manja while training her shapeshifting, haven't got much time to read so I spend way more time thinking about the stories than actually reading them."

And she should start eating before she ends up talking for too long and it all gets cold.

[Reinholdt]

[Restaurante Enchante]

"And you'd get really dizzy." Rein was getting a little dizzy thinking about it! The only spinning one should do is in place before settling down for a nap.

Rein smiles and uses the back of his hand to rub Harlamia's tail one last time before patting it and returning above the table. "That's a pretty name. I think more people miss the various yous than you realize. Maybe not some deep lost longing like losing someone special. But the kind of loss where you wish you knew where your old friend went and could see them one more time. Maybe. I am just speculating after all." It probably depends on how friendly Coral was!

Reinholdt starts eating a little earlier than Harley, by and large because he's listening to her recount the story, an exciting whirlwind romcom. "Learning to love a person instead of an idea is a difficult hurdle for everyone. I'd guess it's breakup reason number one, but I'm not a sociologist. Or a romanceologist? Whichever ology applies." Dabbing his mouth with a napkin, he shakes his head at Harley. "Never, ever apologize to me for being excited about something you love. First of all, it makes you absolutely radiant. Secondly, no one should ever apologize for that to begin with. And third... it was pretty interesting story. You'll have to tell me the rest when you're done."

The fey adds two last questions before resuming his meal. "How is that training going with Manja by the way? Is there any way I can help?"

[5a Violista]

[Restaurante Enchante]

Harley takes advantage of the fact that her mouth isn't being used to start eating.

"I...I suppose," she says. "I had to quit over text for her, so that was covered, but I guess I never did get to say anything to the people I had planned to meet with."

She nods, agreeing with what he's saying, saying "Romanceology makes sense," and nodding to agree to tell him the rest of it when she gets there in the book. (She doesn't say anything, obviously, because her mouth's full.)
Harley swallows.
"Okay." To all the things he said but she was unable to respond to because of food.

"Honestly, when it comes to training her...I'm a little lost," she says. "You know how she turned into a kitten, right? I wasn't expecting her to do anything nearly that complex until she was three or four." That's how it was with her other kids way back when, and with herself too. "But I still need to get her used to the basics and get her used to her...her sense of self, so that she still has a foundation of her own identity when she gets older, and also so she doesn't accidentally kill herself because she didn't know what she was doing."
Harley sighs, and moves the food around on her plate, looking at it. "So I can't help her with the more complex things she can already do - which she already has surprising control over! - but she still needs to do it so that she can burn off energy...but because she can do it, I need to be especially careful around her. If she changes to a kitten while I'm touching her, my body's going to mimic her..." Her food's all mixed around now. "...and because presumably she inherited that from you, I don't know the mechanism she's using to do it, and - no offense - I'd rather not be stuck as a cat for several weeks because it's going to be a lot harder to figure out the mechanism without hands to write out my thought process."

So, that's a long rambling way to say, "So if you could just...when you're with her, coax her into being a cat with you? So that she can practice it without me worrying about everything that could go wrong. That'd be great."

[Purple Eagle]

[Shopping Shifters]

"She doesn't have a favorite color yet," Carlie says. Since she's still a baby. Also, apparently, cats don't seem to really care about colors, sometimes. Carlie steps to the side so that Manja can look at and reach towards something else.

Carlie looks over at the rattle. "Sure, that one would be fine."
And then adds, "You don't need to buy me something if you don't want to."

[Shopping Shifters]

"Ah... I'll go with pink then! Not just because girls are supposed to like pink, but because I like pink!" Marco says, waving the toy he picked up and smiling, all proud of himself!

"Well... Miss Schmidt pays me well - I started working for her as an intern in her office - but not that well..." He says, feet playing with something on the ground as he stands there, hands behind his back. "And I wanted to buy something for my dear Titi too! But, if you wanted to buy me something instead..." He trails off, looking up at her with big, hopeful eyes.

Hey, just in case!

[5a Violista]

[Shopping Shifters]

"I guess it'll match her ears, then."

Carlie walks a little down the aisle, looking at different kinds of rockets.
"How about..."
She stops in front of one and grabs it. "How about this?" She grabs a little air-pressure rocket. "Probably shouldn't get you anything too dangerous for a kid."

[Reinholdt]

[Restaurante Enchante]

Reinholdt gentle taps his plate with his fork, a bad habit of his. "You know, HALO is a place of research now. Ancient treasures are fascinating, but maybe I should take up Romanceology too. So I look more official. What do you think? Would it make me look more scientific?" It is extremely doubtful that Rein will ever be mistaken for a legitimate scientist like Dorota or Grace.

"Huh. Shapeshifting's a lot more complicated than I thought." Especially for a true shapeshifter like Harley. "Wait, your bodies naturally mimic each other if you're touching?" Rein raises an eyebrow. Furthermore Manja would be what changes Harley? Rein would have imagined it to be the other way around, the more experienced shapeshifter winning out.

"Yeah. Yeah, I can do that no problem. Hmm... did I ever explain my shapeshifting to you?" That might help Harley to understand their daughter a little better at least. Also if the two of them can figure out the mechanism before it becomes a problem, that'd be one less stressful thing to worry about. "Cause I'm pretty sure I saw her transform into her Battle Form during that fiasco. She makes an adorable baby lion," Rein says, with more than a hint of pride in his voice.

[5a Violista]

[Restaurante Enchante]

Harley laughs.
Yeah, he should definitely become a Romanceologist. "Would you need a degree or something for that?"


"Yeah, actually..." She sets down her fork so that she can do hand gestures to sort-of show what she's saying. "Actually, my body mimics any form of active shapeshifting effect that I come in contact with. Manja does the same, too. While I'm touching her, I could control her as well as I could myself, and vice-versa. It's kind-of because the, um...shapeshifting effect 'spills out' of our bodies, a little. It's actually half of what made the pregnancy so dangerous." The other half was, of course, that Manja was literally constantly dying thanks to entropic magic. "It...I have a lot of bad memories thanks to that fact so I try to only do it with her when I have to."
And...
Actually, thinking about it, she's not sure if him shapeshifting would affect her or not. Harley frowns as she tries to figure out if there were any circumstances where it would or not. Is it more of an external thing, or an internal thing? Probably wouldn't affect her, unless something went seriously wrong.

Harley picks her fork back up.
"I don't think you have explained it, yet," she says. "Oh, she does? I'd love to see her do that." Baby lions can be really cute.

[Reinholdt]

[Restaurante Enchante]

"Uhh... Yeah, I suppose I would. I don't know who to study under though. Man, it's been a loooong time since I had schooling. I'm not looking forward to going back." Well. Depends on how good his Romanceologist teacher is he supposes. A good teacher can keep a class from feeling like work!

"I see..." Rein only half-sees. But he is pretty happy Manja and Harley both survived the pregnancy. That's the important part. "Hey. You're not your mom. Anyone can tell that. You care." He's never met Harley's mom, but he's pretty sure she didn't care. Not in the nice way anyways.
Either way, Rein's getting the feeling it needed to be said.

He has to think for a moment though. He only partially knows how his own shapeshifting works. This line of knowledge was never his strong suit. Though after a minute of pondering and swallowing his food so he's not talking over it, her replies. "Well, I can already tell you you're immune to my shapeshifting. This is not my natural form. I'm an Alikil. A lot of people see it as a normal housecat, but it's a bit more than that. This fey form was bargained to me by a mad fey witch desperately in love after I did... some pretty horrible things really. I was repulsed. Buuut... she didn't give me a choice in the matter. Take the bargain or wait as she hunted and killed my friends one by one." Rein looks away. "So I made a deal. And this is what I got for it. I can't say it hasn't made living easier. It was... lonely. I've only met a scant few other talking cats in this world. Two? Maybe three. And they all faded into the mist quickly. The longest lasted two weeks I think." Deadtime, the ever present ending to all stories.

"Anyways, the cat form is natural for Alikil. Something unique to our species, in so far as anything can be, is that all Alikil have a second form. Usually a larger feline, more ferocious. Like a lion in Manja's case. It's a battle form... an evolved mechanism for defense and aggression? The specifics of why elude me, but there are two things of note. First an Alikil generally learns how to shift into this form early, as if learning how to walk or crawl. It's very natural for them, though some take longer than others. If anything, I'm actually impressed at how quickly Manja jumped into one. She seems very talented." Rein beams a little. "I suspect she had an easier time with your shapeshifting in the mix though. Anyways, the second thing to note is that while having A battle form is genetic with my race, WHICH battle form is not. There were a lot of contentious theories about why. From the god emperors deciding each Alikil's battle form at birth, to something intrinsic about the soul, or who the person is. Of note, it never changes as an Alikil grows older, so even with a rapid personality shift, there's definitely something deeper at work."

Reinholdt shrugs. "Could just be genetic in a way we didn't understand. Like with recessive genes or something? I dunno." It's anyone's guess. Well, to be more specific it's Rein's guess being the last pure Alikil. Discounting the endless time loop he started.

[5a Violista]

[Restaurante Enchante]

Harley runs her hand past her right ear, to see if any hair had escaped. She also looks away for a moment. "I can still see her in me all the time," she says, not really contradicting him.


She takes advantage of his time pondering so that she can eat, too.
"Huh. I see," she says. "Sounds like a pretty awful situation. Glad you managed to get out of that situation safely." And Harley also says, "Yeah, you are the only one I've seen around. Not really sure why, exactly, but it does seem like there's a clear pattern to the kind of people that commonly appear around."

Harley listens pretty intently to his explanation. It seems likely that it'll be helpful in the future - either in case some accident happens, or to help Manja in the future. "Oh, wow," Harley says. "Sounds pretty useful. And the fact that it is definitely genetic is pretty good news. Means if something does happen, it won't be too hard to reverse."

She leans against the table. "Could be epigenetic, too," she says. "Like, how the environment and history affects the way genes manifest, and other things like that. It's a lot more complicated than recessive genes, but..." But it's definitely something that helped her after learning about it. "And trust me, when you throw magic and gods and curses and whatever in, it gets insanely complicated."

[Purple Eagle]

[Shopping Shifters]

"I guess it'll match her ears, then."

Carlie walks a little down the aisle, looking at different kinds of rockets.
"How about..."
She stops in front of one and grabs it. "How about this?" She grabs a little air-pressure rocket. "Probably shouldn't get you anything too dangerous for a kid."

[Shopping Shifters]

"Awesome! Thanks, Titi!" Marco seems very happy that he's gotten to buy his cousin something! He follows expectantly, and when she selects the rocket, looks like he's about to jump as high as the ceiling. "Yipee! That's perfect!" Though he does scowl and put his hands on his hips. "I'm not a kid, I'm a teenager, ey? And I can care for myself and everything!"

He then points out some jewelery in the area. "I think Manja would like that! To look at, I mean."

[Reinholdt]

[Restaurante Enchante]

Rein frowns a little, but doesn't say anything else about Harley's mother. Those type of insecurities are not the kind of thing you can push past with just words. Repeated reassurances and nudges, on the other hand, may help. He hopes.

Cleaning his face once more, he puts the napkin down on his empty plate. "Hmm... I suppose. I think it's more that people around here seem more unique because the diversity level is astronomically high. Spreads out the numbers." Sure are a lot of fey and demons about though!

"Oh that's good." Easily reversible seems like an important and desirable trait for a shapeshifter.

He seems to take an interest in epigenetics, thinking on it. "Ummm... maybe? I would imagine that you'd end up with a lot more of the same battle forms in a family though. You know, like siblings growing up in more or less the same environment. But it was pretty rare for siblings to have the same battle form, even if they were twins. In fact it was considered a sign of good luck if you did." Reinholdt shakes his head and shrugs. "But if it gets as complicated as you suggest then who knows? I've seen too many impossible things to rule anything out."

[5a Violista]

[Shopping Shifters]

Carlie walks over to the jewelry to look at it. Jewelry is probably a bad idea. If she does get something, it'd have to be plastic, with big different-shaped pieces and pretty sturdy, and elastic, and many different colors. Probably a bracelet.
"Hmmm...."
She looks over them, mentally crossing off them one-by-one.

"Oh, yeah?" she says while looking. "How old are you, then? Probably not even properly scared of the dark yet." Carlie sticks out her tongue briefly, at him.


[Restaurante Enchante]

Yeah, makes sense. She nods. Everyone coming from different worlds would make a huge uniqueness level.
Lots of humans, too.

Realizing that he's already finished with his plate, Harley focuses on eating for a while.
"Epigenetics is an explanation for why even identical twins aren't exactly the same," she says. So clearly, being siblings isn't enough to be considered "the same environment" in this context. "In fact, apparently birth order and birth weight are things that can matter for it, too?" She finishes eating, too, and places her silverware down on the plate. "Oh, fun fact: actually, as Coral, I would frequently hang around Inside's universities and ask a bunch of the science departments to ask biologists about what they were working on. Some were researching epigenetics, and it seems like every couple weeks, there'd be something new in the field. I mean, like, actually, there was one who seemed to have a thing for snakes, and he would always talk to me about all of the things he was working on, like, he was looking into this half-demon girl, where, her clones were just 100% human, y'know? So there was clearly something there, and so he thought some kind of magic or curse or spirit-thing or something was changing how her DNA was being implemented, or something. Could be something similar with battle forms." This is, of course, complete speculation.
She laughs, and adds: "Y'know, all the really sciencey lingo or magic terminology just went right over my head."

[Reinholdt]

[Restaurante Enchante]

"Ahhhh... I see." Reinholdt didn't quite get it the first time around. But it makes a bit more sense now why she'd suggest it in the first place.

His mouth curls up into a teasing smirk. "Ohh? Flirting with someone heavily to get what you want, huh? Should I feel jealous or used?" His tone suggests he doesn't feel either at the moment. Not the easily jealous type. Perhaps.

"That is pretty weird though. Might have been a curse to begin with? I cloned a half-demon just recently and the clone came out half-demon. Or... well I think she said she was half-demon at any rate. Might have just been full demon." The clone came out the same either way!

[5a Violista]

[Restaurante Enchante]

Harley agrees: "Could be a curse, or something, that's passed down from parent to child. Her mother was a full demon, apparently. So it just goes to show that, with all the different kinds of demons or whatever, some are probably genetic like the one you cloned, but the one that was being studied was not genetic but - maybe because of exposure to the magic or curse or whatever in the womb - still got passed along anyway."
Wrapping this topic back to something relevant, she asks, "Hey, do you know how often Alikil clones have the same battle form as the ones they're cloned from? It wouldn't completely explain how it works, but it could narrow it down, a bit."

And so,
Harley counters with a smirk, as well. "Oh, definitely, you should feel jealous," she says. "So what are you going to do about it, to prove I'm yours?"

[Reinholdt]

[Restaurante Enchante]

"Ah, well, uhh..." Reinholdt glances around. "Yes. They do. I think. I mean sort of... err, Battle Forms are entirely the same. Across clones that is. Mostly. Yes." Oh-ho a distraction! Reinholdt motions the waiter over to indicate they are done and to provide him with the bill.

Clearing his throat, he's now clearly on the backfoot for her counter-smirk. "Wellll... uh," Rein thinks about that for maybe a second too long before remembering he needs to be smooth here. He can recover. He still has some plans above and beyond the fanciest restaurant! "I think taking you back home and pampering you with what I have prepared there should qualify as proof, yes? Are you ready?"

[5a Violista]

Restaurante Enchante

Oh. 'Mostly'...well, that doesn't really simplify things. In that case, it could be something about the cloning procedure that keeps on giving the same result? Or maybe it is just inherent but the cloning procedure causes mutations? Or maybe...
It is rather fortunate that there is a distraction, because it seems like it could get complicated really fast and they would get lost theorizing about things they can't test.

So.
The benefit of being a snake is that you don't have feet is that you can never be on the backfoot or caught flatfooted or any other similar idiom.

Can there even be something above and beyond the fanciest restaurant?
"Oh, really? That should be good enough, especially if it's pre-planned."
And now Harley's actually pretty curious about what it could be. "Y-yeah, I'm ready," Unfortunately, she didn't have a clever response in mind for that suggestion.

[Reinholdt]

[Restaurante Enchante]

Reinholdt should have considered becoming a snake for just these kinds of situations then. Alas. To be fair, he did maneuver himself into this particular bout of awkwardness. But it was for the benefit of Manja, so he'd just have to navigate that minefield.

How does one explain that he was the one crippled Alikil who grew up without a Battle Form?

None of his children seemed to have them either. It was easy at first to blame himself. To hate himself, for being defective and passing that on to his kids. That Manja has one is an untold relief off his shoulders. And one step closer to the truth. He thinks he understands it all now, but it's still no easy thing to talk about.

"Good." Reinholdt finishes up paying and cautiously stands up, taking great care to not step on Harley's tail and not trip over himself. Once he's properly extricated, he holds out his hand to Harley to take her arm in arm. "Shall we?" And if they shall, Rein'll lead the way back to HALO.

[Purple Eagle]

[Shopping Shifters]

Carlie walks over to the jewelry to look at it. Jewelry is probably a bad idea. If she does get something, it'd have to be plastic, with big different-shaped pieces and pretty sturdy, and elastic, and many different colors. Probably a bracelet.
"Hmmm...."
She looks over them, mentally crossing off them one-by-one.

"Oh, yeah?" she says while looking. "How old are you, then? Probably not even properly scared of the dark yet." Carlie sticks out her tongue briefly, at him.

[Shopping Shifters]

Marco pouts at her and crosses his arms all cutely, though he doesn't mean it so. "I'll have you know I'm a young adult! Fifteen, I tell you!" He'd probably be shaking his fists or something if his arms weren't crossed. "And I'm not s-scared of the dark, thank you very much!" He adds, a bit uncertainly, but sticks his tongue back at her.

Still pouting, he turns to look at the more adult-suited rockets with a daydreamy look in his eyes. Oh, if only! Then he studies some more of the jewelery and points out things for Manja to look at. "Can I carry her again?"

[5a Violista]

[Restaurante Enchante]

Fortunately, snakes aren't the only option. Could also become a mermaid, too. Or...like a centaur but with a tank instead of a horse? Or maybe a headless horseman, except instead of no head there's no legs.

Harley, unaware of his inner turmoil regarding his disability, is unable to address it in any way.

After he's up, she stands, too. The reason why she didn't stand first is because she is really out-of-practice maneuvering with a long tail like this, and didn't think she could do it without knocking him or his chair over. Kind-of regrets taking up that much space at this point.

"I'm excited to see what you have planned," she says, taking his arm.



[Shopping Shifters]

"Figures," Carlie says. "Only adults know what it's like to be actually scared of the dark. Ah, to be young and innocent."
She closes her eyes and shakes her head.

Manja looks at the things that Marco's pointing at. Not because it's jewelry, but instead because he's pointing at them.

The bunnygirl considers it.
"As long as you don't run again," she says. If Marco affirms that he won't, she passes the baby back to him.

[Purple Eagle]

[Shopping Shifters]

"Figures," Carlie says. "Only adults know what it's like to be actually scared of the dark. Ah, to be young and innocent."
She closes her eyes and shakes her head.

Manja looks at the things that Marco's pointing at. Not because it's jewelry, but instead because he's pointing at them.

The bunnygirl considers it.
"As long as you don't run again," she says. If Marco affirms that he won't, she passes the baby back to him.

[Shopping Shifters]

Marco seems a little scared at that. "A-Actually scared...?" There's more to be scared of growing up? And he looked forward to growing up so much! "W-Well, I won't be scared! I won't!" He sounds unsure, but puts up a brave face nonetheless.

As much as he wants to run around, he promises not to if it means getting to carry cute baby more. So he nods, and makes sure to stay close to Carlie as he shows Manja more shiny things to look at and touch. Like those Thanksmas ornaments, for instance!

"What's Titi Carlie's favourite food?" He asks all of a sudden.