Manic's life has gone to crap. With the theft of a nostalgic pendant, everything in his life seems to have gone for the worse. And then another mean, green hedgehog came into his life...
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When you've spent your whole life in snobby, upper-crust houses, working snobby, upper-crust jobs, and spending your time with fellow snobby, upper-crust snobs, "OOOOOOOOOH DAAAAAMN" is more or less the last thing you'd want to hear some guy yell at you.
Bartleby scrunched his nose. This is no way to act in my store...! He thought. He put on his customer service grin while he spun around to face whoever entered. "Good morning, sir. How may we..."
Incredible. Simply incredible. Out of all the people in this city, who could have possible came into his own gorgeous jewelry store, it had to be Manic. "What's uuup, Bartleby?!" He said, striding up to the counter.
Everything in the store was as snooty as you'd expect. Elegant jewels on velvet cushions in wide glass cases. Marble floors and countertops. Even the employees were somehow all some pastel shade, in subtle, tailored outfits.
Saying Manic looked out of place wouldn't describe just how striking he was in this overly elegant building. He didn't look like he had ever gotten his quills trimmed, as they jutted out in many, many angles, most of which seemed impossible, or at least impractical. The only accessories were some two dollar earrings and a drum-shaped pendant way too big to be anything other than horribly tacky. But more than anything, in this all white and pastel jewelry store, a neon lime green punk in a poorly-fitted, bright red jacket and jet black jeans didn't exactly seem welcome. Not that he noticed.
Bartleby at least pretended to try and be professional. His smile went a little more plastic when he spoke, but hey, he tried. "It's nice to see you, Manic," he lied. "Is this about your sister...?"
"Shooooot, I keep forgetting!" He yelled again. "That letter's somewhere in my car, I think. Ooooooh no! I'll give that to Sonia soon, I promise!"
Bartleby leaned in closer. He had lost any hope of this conversation going anywhere good, and grinned the most fake, passive-aggressive grin he could manage. "Then why are you hear, dear customer?"
"RIIGHT, so like, Sonia came to you to get these things all painted in silver, right?" He took off his pendant, handing it over.
"Plated. Silver plated. And yes, that was your sister's request." He said, holding the pendant up. It looked kind of tarnished, but that wasn't his fault. It was evenly coated when he handed it back to him.
"So I was messing with my car, and it kind of fell into the hood..."
The mink looked at the other side of the pendant, and winced. Every inch of the other side was covered in huge, ugly scratches. He clearly tried to clean oil out of it, but not very well. All the hard work some other guy in the back put into fixing this thing... ruined!
"Could you cover it in some more? Just slop a bit on like peanut butter, cover up the oil. It'll be fiiiiine."
The clerk turned back to face Manic. As this point, he was passed trying to be polite or helpful to this kid. "Unfortunately, we can only provide... trusted customers with later billing. If you want us to do this again for you, we're going to have to ask you to pay in advance."
"I understand. Don't worry, I've got it." Manic pulled out his wallet, not even a little offended. "Yeah, I don't really know how jewelry places and things work, so I got some money now. Dooon't worry about it."
The front doors burst open again, forcing everyone's attention to the front of the store. Bartleby gasped at the four new visitors. Four very, very poorly dressed animals walked in. The genders were ambiguous on most of them. Whoever they were, they all wore the same things - these hideous sweaters and unfortunate pants in neon yellow, splashed in similarly bright shades of orange, green, and pink. Their eyes were covered by bright yellow sunglasses, the same ugly color as their clothes. Their... quills? Hair? It was hard to tell. Whatever it was was covered in some kind of pink hairspray... or something of that sort.
Manic turned to face the clerk. "Hey, there's nothing to worry about. They're just poorly dressed and kind of ugly."
They were clearly not just poorly dressed and kind of ugly, as they also carried handguns with them.
Two animals near the front of the group walked up to the counter Manic was at. The two others walked to another clerk managing the back of the store. "You know why we're here. You've heard of us, right? That little group called Plague Reflux? So why don't we make this nice and easy?" Said one of the animals, clearly a man speaking in a really bad vocal fry. "Give us some presents, and we won't hurt you or your boyfriend."
He nudged at his partner, who gave the clerk a neon pink bag, clearly sewn out of the same cheap material. "Don't forget the register." Now THAT'S how you hide your voice. That was either a dude in falsetto or a girl talking really low. At least that actually hid their identity! Bartleby was quick to agree, and cautiously grabbed the bag. As the partner watched the clerk empty the cases, the male thief turned to face Manic. His hair/quills were brushed straight down. He held his hand limply towards Manic.
"We don't want any more charges than we've got. Don't be a hero, and we'll all be happy." He didn't actually sound threatening. Why, if there wasn't a gun or armed robbery involved, that would almost sound polite!
Manic was used to this kind of thing. Not being held at gunpoint specifically, just getting himself into horrible situations far beyond his control. Finding himself stranded in the middle of nowhere without his phone, tumbling headfirst down many floors worth of stairs at a public beach, being the prime suspect in a murder, all that hoopla. He had been in enough horrible situations to know how to handle himself. More importantly, he knew how to speak with very dangerous people.
"Dude, nice calves."
It wasn't a good way, but it was definitely a way of talking to them.
Still, that wasn't what they expected or wanted to hear. It isn't that he way lying, the thief did have lovely legs - as did all of the animals in the horrible outfits. The one really tall bird guy holding up the register even had a great set of arms to match! But that's not exactly what you want to hear when you're holding someone at gunpoint.
"I mean it!"
The thief gave the hedgehog a very confused glare. Manic shrugged much more casually than he had any right to. "...You think this kid's alright?"
"H-he most d-d-d-definitely isn't-" Bartleby stuttered out
The thief at the counter laughed and grinned at him. "I don't think we asked you, yellow. Hurry it up." they said in a saccharine voice.
The two thieves near the back took the bag back from the clerk at the back, and walked up to their partners. "You almost done up here?" Okay, that girl was at least trying to sound different. Maybe to an untrained ear, she might have sounded male, but she was barely missing that certain something. "Hurry up, and we'll be out of your way." This only made Bartleby fumble around more, but after a few moments, the rest of the displays had been emptied into those hideous pink bags. The female thief took it back. "The guy in the back got us twice as many pieces in half the time. Step it up."
And with that, all four thieves left barely a few minutes after they arrived. The employees were completely frozen for a few seconds, but that was enough time for the thieves to get out of sight. Bartleby looked at Manic once more. "Calves?"
"He had some good legs."
The clerk sneered, and started dialing the police. Manic walked up to him, and patted him on the shoulder. "Dude, that really sucks. Like, it REALLY sucks."
"Do you mind?!"
"Dude, I don't know what jewelry's like to you, but that's gotta suck."
"You should know what it's like!" Bartleby yelled. "They took YOUR pendant too!"
"Eh?" For once, Manic was caught off guard.
"Of course they did! They took everything! Were their legs so distracting?!" Manic looked all around the case, the counters. Sure enough, his pendant was nowhere to be seen. It wasn't even that valuable! He grasped at his chest, where the pendant would usually hang. He had that necklace for so long, it was like a part of him at this point. Ever since the start of his band...! He couldn't lose that! There must have been a mistake, right? But despite what he wanted to think, his lucky pendant was in a bright pink bag, with four garish thieves, driving out of the city, and pretty soon, out of the state. Manic responded the only way he knew how.
