Xisuma's Parrotsitting [HermitSteal AU]

New Trauma, New Roommate

"Can you duplicate the coffee?"

"Oh, do my rubber next!"

"How about a chair?"

"The table! Do the table!"

"No, do something that is edible, like the sugar thingies!"

"You just want to overdose on sugar, Ash."

"Alright, guys, break it up!" Xisuma scolds as he nears the table where all the little troublemakers have gathered. Spoke doesn't look like he minds them, grinning at their demands and excited to show off his new skill to everyone who enters the cafe. The man carries the order to another table, exchanging a few words with the customer before returning with the empty tray under his arm.

"But it's so cool!"

Right at Bacon's words, Spoke duplicates Parrot's bird eraser. It's a very colourful, cartoon piece, mimicking a scarlet macaw (Parrot was looking for a blue and yellow one but after looking through the wares of many bookshops and other stores that sold stationary, he settled for the red one). The duplicate's colours are muted and blurred and bleed into each other. So far the only object Spoke has been able to duplicate perfectly is Xisuma's newspaper (Parrot briefly did the job of the paperboy and threw the extras Spoke created into the backyards of some houses), so they have deduced that there is an issue when it comes to colours outside blacks and greys.

"What are you going to do with ten erasers?" Xisuma asks, eyes as wide as saucers at the small pile of rubbers.

"Sell them, duh." Parrot responds easily. That boy has a mind for business at such a young age and Xisuma can't decide between being proud and being unnerved.

The last thing he needs ontop of a murder clown sneaking inside their home is to have Parrot selling erasers in dark alleys. The principal has already phoned him about his kids scamming their innocent classmates out of money. He learnt later that they had recruited Ro to be their little lookout whilst they took their peers in a nook between the school and the building next door. Obviously, Xisuma gave them a talking to about not scamming their classmates but he is pretty sure that they took his chiding as "be more careful who you sell to next time" because they didn't look all that sorry about it.

At this point, he knows they're going to do what they want to do and there are few things that can stop them. They know how to twist his words to fit their narrative and exploit every loophole they find.

"You've already got into trouble at school, Parrot." Xisuma reminds him.

"I told you that I'd be more careful, Suma."

"That is not my point!"

At the same time, the bell rings.

"Whose point is what?" Branzy asks as he steps into the establishment with a briefcase in hand. He has a curious smile on his face but the issue is too private to disclose to a regular... even though there are plenty of regulars already sitting at the surrounding tables. Branzy, though... he has this aura around him that makes Xisuma want to keep his and his kids' secrets far away from him.

"It's nothing," Xisuma tells Branzy, turning to face the fancy man. "Your regular order?"

"Yep! Thank you very much!"

As Branzy searches and finds a table to sit at, Xisuma turns to the small group of kids, who are too focused on Spoke's creations to pay any mind to the adults.

"Spoke, keep the duplication on the down low, please." he tells the boy, who looks at him with a confused expression. Parrot jabs his elbow into his friend's side, jerking his head towards Branzy's table right after.