Calamitous Intervention

Sense and Insensitivity

It was a mostly quiet day in the marketplace, as King and Eda were at the latter's Human Collectibles stand as per usual, trying to make a living. Anne wanted to explore the other stands, curious to see what else the market had to offer.

As people passed by, King hopped onto the table and held up a tray of mostly inedible objects taken from the Human Realm. "Partake of my free snack samples!" he demanded. "Take them! I demand it as your ruler, the King of Demons!"

Seeing as nobody was even giving him a second glance, he grew frustrated and threw the tray on the ground, creating a mess. "Why isn't anyone paying attention to me?" King asked out loud. "I'm their rightful overlord..." He plopped down on the edge of the table, reminded of his small stature. "Intellectually and such..."

Eda, who was leaning back in her chair, wearing a pair of sunglasses, couldn't help but agree with the fact that nobody was buying anything from her. "Yeah... Hey!" She noticed a student from the oracle track passing by and grabbed him by the cowl without a second thought, making him yelp in surprise.

She took a whiff of him to find out whether or not he had money on him, but an unamused expression appeared on the Owl Lady's face. "It reeks more of nerd than money today..." she murmured, letting the student go, who scurried away as quickly as he could to avoid Eda.

"Well, that's a bummer," she said. She was hoping to make some good money today, but traffic was dry, and right now, anything would've helped them greatly. "Y'know... I'm not sure how things will look one year from now if my curse gets worse and no one's left to look after you," Eda said to King. "But right now, I'm more worried about Anne and if she'll be around by then."

When King looked at her, a frown replacing his annoyed expression, she sighed before continuing. "I just hope she enjoys what we've got so far..."

Meanwhile, Anne passed by stands, finding most of them unremarkable. The book fair didn't have anything that she found interesting until she saw one run by a bard track student offering used instruments for sale.

Curious, she approached the stand, studying the various instruments that were available for purchase. She couldn't help but be reminded of how much she, Sasha, and Marcy used to have their own band back home named The Sharps. As Anne's mind wandered, she felt an awesome idea ignite in her head.

Ever since arriving on the Isles, Anne hadn't thought too much about making music or just having fun as she did back home, but seeing this completely changed her mind and mood. She figured it could be fun to try making a song based on her experiences in this world so far. In order to do that, she would need an instrument, so she ran back to Eda's stand with an excited expression on her face, making Eda and King jump in surprise.

"Eda! I know what I wanna do!" Anne said excitedly. "Please give me some snails! I wanna buy a guitar someone from the bard coven is selling."

Eda crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes at the human. "No, kiddo. We aren't really in the best spot financially right now."

King, meanwhile, had a thoughtful expression on his face. He'd listen to music before, mostly on Anne's phone. He would never, in a million years, admit to it, but he liked the K-pop songs she listened to. While normally he wouldn't agree to do this, he'd rather be doing almost anything else than trying to sell human junk for a second longer.

"Aw, come on, Eda," he pleaded, hopping down and standing next to Anne with puppy dog eyes. "We can come up with song ideas together. Maybe we could make money that way."

While Anne appreciated King siding with her, she hadn't expected him to mention the fact that they could profit from something like this, but she wasn't opposed to the idea. Eda looked back and forth between the two, her stern expression faltering. Finally, she sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose. The Owl Lady knew it would be a high price to pay, but at the same time, she couldn't deny Anne and King the chance to have fun together.