POV
Alex/ human
Alex woke up the next morning to the sound of Isabelle reading the morning announcements over the intercom. "Good morning, everyone. It is another beautiful morning today! So there isn't really any news to speak of…" Her voice trailed off. "Oh, I saw a beautiful Atlas Moth last night. That creature is truly stunning as it flies off into the night. Oh dear, I guess that doesn't really count as news, does it? Oh well, be sure to have a great day." And with that, she clicked off.
Alex rubbed the sleep out of their eyes. Well, no news is good news, I guess. Sitting up slowly, Alex decided to go ahead and get up. Best to go ahead and get a jump on it. After they were dressed and had their tools ready for the day, they went outside. The ocean sparked in the sunlight, sending shimmering lights across the water. Alex had always loved the ocean, even now they felt to urge to run and jump into the salt water…
But the throbbing ache in their leg reminded them why that wasn't a good idea. No point crying over spilt milk. Alex headed in the direction of Resident Services. Best to just keep moving forward at this point. As they walked that direction, Alex saw Lucky sitting under a tree, with his leg propped up. He wasn't alone though. There were two ladies sitting with him on the ground. He waved at Alex as they came by. Alex decided it might be rude if they just ignored them, so they went on over.
The lady in the cool-tone zigzag print dress looked older than the other one, but would still be considered a young woman. She had a long, oval-shaped face with big, wide-set blue eyes. She had a large dark-colored nose, but the color faded back to her regular dark skin tone. Her thick, light-pink hair was hanging over her right eye, but it was shaved on her left side. She had a pair of large ears on the top of her head with metal hoop earrings in them, in addition to her regular human ears. Alex could see that her legs weren't regular human legs. They were covered in thick, dark brown hair, and her feet were actually hoofs. Her tail is the same color as her hair, or mane, I guess. Horse; definitely a horse hybrid. Similar to the cat hybrid Alex had spoken to yesterday, she seemed to be more conscious of her appearance. The fact that she was sporting a double piecing in her left horse ear and was wearing silver winged eye-liner attested to that fact.
The other one was a young lady in a simpler Bohemian tunic dress was sitting on her side, with her legs off to the side of her. Like the first lady, her legs were also covered in brown hair, which ended in hooves. The young lady had a short, light brown pixie cut framing her face. It looked like someone had shaved her head all the way down, and she was in the process of growing her hair back out. She had deer ears on her head as well as human ones. As Alex got closer, her large doe eyes got larger and larger, creating more of a 'deer in headlights' look by the minute. Alex could tell that their presence was making her nervous, but they were already walking over, and it would look weird if they suddenly turned around and left.
"Morning, Lucky," Alex greeted once they were close enough to be heard without shouting.
"Morning, Alex," Lucky smiled. "What you up too?"
"Gonna go talk about my bill with Mr. Nook."
"Ha, good luck with that. No one has gotten a Bell out of Mr. Nook, yet." He glanced at the girls sitting next to him. "Fauna, Reneigh, this is Alex. Alex, this is Fauna and Reneigh." He pointed to each girl as he introduced them.
"Hello," Alex said gently. They could tell that Fauna in particular was really uncomfortable.
"Hi, Alex," Reneigh smiled. Fauna continued to stare at Alex in mute alarm. Reneigh turned to Fauna and gently nudged her.
"Hello," Fauna mumbled so softly Alex barely heard her. Before Alex could say anything else, she hurriedly stood up. "I'll see you later, Lucky, Reneigh," she murmured to the ground, before practically sprinting away on her deer legs.
Alex regretted coming over. "I'm sorry, I didn't—"
"Don't worry about it. I should be the one to apologize; I called you over." Lucky sighed. "You will have to excuse Fauna. She is new. She only came last week."
Reneigh touched his good leg. "I'll go check up on her. You two chat." She smiled back up at Alex. "I'm sure I'll see you around, Alex." She stood up and hurried after Fauna.
Alex bit their lip. "Did I do something?"
"Oh, no, it's not you!" Lucky said hurriedly. "Well, it kinda is you. The last humans—real humans, that is— that Fauna had contact with were the ones at the Lab. She is still adjusting to life here. It's normal for new residents to be jumpy and edgy at first. Almost everyone who comes here acts the same. They keep looking around like they expect shadows to attack them. Or that this is all a dream, and we are going to wake up back there. Once we realized that we truly aren't there anymore, well, we don't ever want to go back. We are all scared to death of going back." Alex noticed that Lucky had switched from just talking about others to talking about himself too. Alex felt a shudder pass through them.
He shook his head, as if to dispel the negative emotions. "Well, I didn't want to hold you up. I just wanted to say 'hello'. Thanks for stopping by."
"Alright, thanks. See you later," Alex waved and walked away. Is this what Mr. Nook meant when he said that he didn't know how the others would react to me? Will all the people on the island see me as someone to be feared just because I am human? Alex shook their head sadly. I didn't do anything…
Alex pulled open the doors to Resident Services. "Morning, Alex!" Isabelle greeted enthusiastically. "How are you today?"
"I'm doing well, Isabelle." Alex smiled. At least someone is happy to see me. "How are you?"
"Doing great," she beamed at Alex. "What can I do for you?"
"Actually," Alex glanced at Mr. Nook typing away at his computer. "I came to discuss my bill…"
Mr. Nook perked up. "Wonderful," Mr. Nook said as came over to the counter. "Did you see that construction on your house has already started? Yes, yes. No time like the present to get things done. Now, about the costs..." He pulled out what looked like an itemized bill. "This includes the supplies and labor costs. Bringing your grand total to the modest sum of 49,800 Bells. Of course, you still don't have any Bells. So we will call it even at say…5,000 miles." Alex saw Isabelle give Mr. Nook a mildly surprised look, but he just ignored her.
Alex pulled out their list of chores—I mean, the Nook Mileage Program—and looked over it. It shouldn't take too long to pay it off. I mean, it will take a couple of days, but still, that is a very fast time compared to other people's mortgages. "That sounds good to me."
"Good, good. Pleasure to do businesses with you, Alex." Mr. Nook really did sound pleased.
"I best get started then. Like you said, no time like the present."
"Oh Alex," Isabelle called from where she sat. "Have you been to our tailor shop yet, the Able Sisters?"
"No, not yet. Why?"
"Well, once you have some Bells, you should swing by and get a scarf, or bandanna, or hood. Basically, some type of head covering."
Mr. Nook snapped his fingers and nodded to her. "Thank you, Isabelle, I had forgotten. Yes, Alex, you really should."
"Okay, but why?"
Isabelle pointed to her own set of dog ears. "One of the major areas where our hybrid mixes show their traits is around our ears and neck. And because you don't have any…different features, it is obvious that you are different from the rest of us."
"Oh. Right." Alex touched their own ears absently. "But why do I need to hide the fact that I am human? Doesn't everyone here already know that?"
"Yes, everyone in the village," Isabelle agreed. "But we get several…'visitors' from time to time. They work for Redd co. and, obviously, we don't want them to discover you."
"Why do they come here?"
"Officially," Mr. Nook grumbled, "it is 'to bring unique goods and services to the Island'." He rolled his eyes. "I think Redd co. just likes to rub it in that even though we aren't at the Lab anymore, we haven't truly left. It's a reminder that they still control what happens here."
"They don't cause trouble," Isabelle inserted. "It is an understanding between us, that they don't provoke us and we don't provoke them. Most of them come to get away from the Lab and Redd co. themselves. It is like a holiday for them. It's just proactive that they don't know who you are."
"How often does one come?"
"Feels like every single day," griped Mr. Nook.
"It's not that often," Isabelle argued. "But it does happen a lot. They have to take turns, so they all can't come on the same day. They rotate who gets to come and when. Honestly, I am surprised no one showed up today."
"Let's count our blessings, hm," Mr. Nook said. "It gives Alex time to get settled in and to prepare for their arrival." With a jingle of bells, Isabelle nodded in agreement.
"I will be sure to do that." Alex stood up. "See you later." Alex waved to both of them and headed out.
Alex glanced over their list once they were outside. There really was a wide assortment of tasks on it. Hmmm, I guess I'll start with the hardest ones first. I want to get those done before it gets too hot later in the day. Time to chop some trees then. They headed to the edge of the clearing. They could see where someone had started to clear some trees, before stopping for some reason. They pulled out their ax and gripped it securely.
Because they had lived in a sailboat on the water, Alex did not consider themselves to be out of shape. But it only took a dozen swings of the ax to the tree trunk for Alex to realize that they would be feeling this soon. Also, cutting down trees was a lot more work than they had originally thought. But Alex did not give up easily, and gritting their teeth, continued at it.
Alex was able to cut down two trees and chop up them up into bundles without much mishap. They knew to be careful and conscious of the sharp tool in their hand. However, it was when Alex took the first swing at their third tree that misfortune occurred: a wasp nest fell out of the tree and hit the ground. Alex took one look at the rising cloud of angry wasps, before racing off for the village with a shriek. They glanced over their shoulder to see the wasps were out for blood. They were chasing them. What is wrong with these wasps! Weaving around the houses, the wasps were not going to be lost. Alex realized that the wasps were specifically after them; they ignored anyone else how who happened to be outside. Not that Alex wanted to get anyone else to get stung; it was just weird how the wasps were after just them.
"Get inside a building, Alex!" Alex heard Lucky call. Alex glanced over their shoulder to look at him and that was their downfall. Literally. Alex tripped over their own feet and hit the dirt in a painful roll. The wasps wasted no time and attacked in mass. Alex screamed as they stung their face and arms. Apparently, each wasp only felt the need to sting just one time, and to not keep attacking. They dispersed after their initial attack. Petty insects. Alex breathed heavily. They could already feel their skin starting to rise into itchy welts.
"Awww, I'm sorry, Alex. I know that stings." A gentle voice said. It took Alex a second to place a name to the voice. Alex opened one an eye to look at Reneigh. Did you just crack a pun? She was standing over them, holding out her hand. "Come on, I have something that will fix you up."
"Thanks," Alex said, gripping her hand as she helped to pull them up. "What is wrong with those insects?"
"We don't know. They are very dedicated to stinging whoever messes with their hive though." She pulled a bag of what looked like medicine out of her pocket. She dumped the contents onto her palm. It was a metal cylinder. She twisted it open to reveal a pale green paste. "Here; this will fix you right up." She held it out to Alex. "Smear that on the welts or any place that the wasps got you. It will help with your allergic reactions to them. Thankfully, it is fast acting. The swelling will go down soon."
"Thank you." Alex said, as they dipped a finger in the paste and got to work. Reneigh was right; the soothing cream was almost instant relief to the itching sensation. Alex knew that they would feel better in no time.
"No problem. Blathers will be interested to know that you are just as allergic to them as we are." She shrugged. "He thought it might be because of our hybrid mixes that made us have a reaction that fast. Nice to know that that isn't the case." Alex noticed that Reneigh was watching them closely. "Soooo," she asked a bit too casually, "what do you think of the Island so far."
Alex paused. What am I supposed to say to that? "It's definitely new... I have never gone through anything like this before."
"I'll bet," Reneigh laughed. She seemed to search their eyes. "You seem to be handling everything well. I would be freaking out if I was in your hoofs—I mean, shoes!"
Alex bit back their laugh; they couldn't tell if Reneigh was trying to be funny or not. They didn't want to offend her. "Thanks. I guess I should get back to work. My debt won't pay itself."
"Oh, so you ae serious about paying it back right away then." Reneigh gave a sheepish smile. "I'm afraid it took me almost three months to pay it all off. I think Mr. Nook had just about written me off as a lost cause."
"Well, I don't like the idea of debt." Alex shook their head. "Never did. I don't like feeling obligated to someone. Don't like owing favors for the same reason." It's one reason I never bought a house before now.
"That's a good thing, I guess." Reneigh started to walk away. "I'll let you get back to work then. Thanks for the chit-chat! I'll be seeing you."
With a sigh of resignation, Alex headed back toward the edge of the forest. The rest of the morning passed fairly quickly. Their hard work and effort paid off though. They had ample wood to sell to Timmy and Tommy by noon. They gathered up all of the chopped up wood and brought them to Nook's Cranny.
"Alex, welcome!" Timmy greeted happily. Tommy smiled in greeting from where he had been organizing a display. "What do you need today—whoa, that's a lot of wood!" He exclaimed when he saw it all.
"Yup, it has been a busy morning," Alex agreed. Tommy came over and held out his hands to help take it from them.
"That's what, 40 bundles? How about I offer you 2,400 Bells?" Timmy asked as he came over as well.
"Sold!" Alex was happy just to get rid of it now. They rubbed at their aching palms as Timmy and Tommy started to move the supplies to the back storerooms and to get them their Bells. Their palms had blisters starting to form on them from the ax.
Timmy noticed. "You know, the Able Sisters shop sells gloves. You should swing by and pick some up, now that you have some Bells."
"That is a good idea, Timmy. I think I will." They pocketed their Bells.
"Thank you so much for stopping by!" Timmy called as they headed out, while Tommy waved.
The Able Sisters shop was small, but neatly organized. Alex decided it had a cozy, homey feel to it with the quiet hum of the sewing machine in the background, and the quilts and photos displayed on the walls. "Hey, there! Welcome to Able Sisters!" A perky voice broke off her standard greeting when she turned and saw who it was. She straightened her green and white gingham apron as she approached them.
"Hi," Alex smiled at the cheery young lady coming towards them. She had a slightly turned-up nose and some orange-brown coloration scaring her cheeks. She had small round ears perched on her head. Her most striking feature though was her hair. It was blue, which was surprising in and of itself, but the volume of it was amazing. Interspersed throughout her hair were larger, thicker spines. She had them pushed back away from her face, but they seemed to grow in volume, falling down her neck and shoulders, spreading out like a waterfall. It was fascinating how far they stuck out. She was looking Alex up and down, her pretty eyes lit up with excitement. "Wow, you really are just a human. You look so normal!"
There was a quick hitch in the gentle hum of the sewing machine, and a soft but horrified "Mabel!" came from that direction. Alex looked back to see a pair of large, sad brown eyes looking in their direction, before hurriedly averting back down. The hum of the machine resumed as the young woman hid herself in her work. Alex couldn't see her very well now; she was bent over her work, and the machine hid much of her face. Even though her hair and spines were brown instead of blue, there was no mistaking the family resemblance between the two girls.
"I didn't mean it as a bad thing," Mabel called back in that direction in her defense. But she gave Alex an apologetic smile. "I didn't mean it as an insult," she repeated quietly.
Alex shrugged. "It's alright. I don't mind." This is going to be a recurring thing apparently. "I'm Alex."
"Mabel," she introduced herself. "The serious one at the machine is my sister, Sable. Oh, and that's Zucker." She turned around and pointed to mannequin head displaying a wide-brimmed hat. Or more exactly, the young man crouched down, trying to hide behind the mannequin head displaying a wide-brimmed hat.
"Oh, ummmm, hello," he straightened up awkwardly. He seemed to glance around everywhere but at them. He suddenly lunged his hand out in front of him, as if to shake hands, not taking into account that Mabel and Alex were in the front of the shop and he was in standing in the back. His sudden movement bumped the display holding the hat, causing it to wobble and to start to fall over. With a panicked-sounding squeak of alarm, he grabbed at it, but his elbow slammed into another display causing it to start to fall as well. He abandoned his grip on the first one to steady the second, but this allowed the hat display to properly start to fall.
Alex was already moving at this point. They could tell that he was clearly in trouble, and that he needed help. Alex ignored the mannequin head, and focused on catching the more delicate hat. They snatched it off the mannequin head, saving it from being squashed when it hit the floor.
"Whoa, that was close." Alex said mildly, straightening the brim. "You alright?" They looked up from the hat to him. Alex tried every hard not to stare at him; he was clearly uncomfortable with the attention. His large green eyes kept glancing around nervously. He had unruly brown hair pulled back with a headband and what had to be a chopstick shoved into it. He had what looked like three large freckles on each cheek, but they were only slightly darker than his skin and had a raised appearance. It took Alex a second to realize that they looked like suckers. He was wearing a blue shirt that was belted in the front, reminding Alex of some type of gi uniform. He was wearing tan shorts underneath it, with flip-flops on his feet. Sticking out from underneath his shirt, however, four tentacles waved and hovered. They moved listlessly in the air, curling and uncurling. The slow, fluid movements of them suggested that they were moving on their own accord and, with his tight grip and focus on the second display, that he wasn't really conscious of their movements. Octopus? I haven't seen an underwater animal hybrid mix here yet. Come to think of it, most of the other hybrids so far have just been mammals. Blathers is the only exception.
"Yes, I'm fine. Never better." He still had a death grip on the second display, like he didn't trust it to stay put if he let go. Cautiously, he let go of it. He glanced up at them shyly. "I'm Zucker." He introduced himself again, like he had forgotten Mabel had already done so.
Alex tried to fight the amused smile pulling up at their lips. Stop it, he's trying so hard. Alex just nodded seriously and gave a gentle smile instead. "Hello, Zucker. I'm Alex." Passing the hat from one hand to the other, they held out their hand to him. "Pleased to meet you," they said formally.
"Pleased to meet you too, Alex." Zucker said in relief, and gripped their hand firmly. Alex felt a slight suction on their hand, but they had already noticed the scattering of suckers on his hands and arms, so they weren't surprised. They calmly shook his hand.
"Anyway… welcome to Able Sisters, where we sell fashions made lovingly by claw." Mabel said, as she righted the mannequin head and, taking the hat from Alex, placed the hat on it again. "Here, let me give you a quick tour of our shop. Okay, so…when you first walk in, you'll find our recommended items right there, front and center." She pointed to some clothing being modeled on some painted boards. "We change these up every single day. You know, to keep things fresh! Then over on the left, you'll find our mannequins. They're dressed up in whatever seasonal outfits we're into." She dragged Alex over. "We change 'em up from time to time rather than daily. Of course, if you see something on the mannequins you love, you're more than welcome to buy it." She beamed with delight. "Which bring us to the back wall. We keep our other designs not on display back there. And the last thing I want to tell you about is the fitting room." She continued to drag Alex around on her tour. "This is where you can go try on anything that's available for sale that day. Our display space is limited so I can bring items from the back to try on if you want, and can also bring out other color variations of an item. Okay, I think that's everything!" She said finally, after her whirlwind explanation of the shop. She started to blush slightly, making her cheek markings stand out a little stronger. "Wow. I guess I get kind of chatty when I'm talking about the shop. We're open every day from 9 AM to 9 PM. I hope I'll be seeing you in here lots. So…can I help you find anything?"
"Actually, yes. I need some protective gloves," Alex held out their palms, showing the forming blisters.
"Sure thing, hang on." Mabel went to the back area and opened a drawer. "We don't keep these on display, but we do have them." She came back and produced some fingerless gloves. "These should do the trick."
"Thank you." Alex tugged them on and checked their grip. "Feels great."
"Good. Anything else I could help you with?"
"Yes. Isabelle mentioned that I need some kind of hat or hood or something. To cover these." Alex pointed at their own ears.
Mabel snapped her fingers. "Good idea. Um, I'm afraid we don't have much in stock right now."
"Mabel, check the back room. There should be something in storage," The other woman, Sable mumbled so quietly Alex almost didn't hear her. She wasn't looking at them; her eyes still fixed on her work.
"I'll go check." Mabel walked in that direction. Unfortunately, Zucker was standing where she needed to go. He dithered, clearly uncertain in which direction would be the best to move, and ended up just standing there. Mabel didn't even flinch; once she was close enough, she calmly reached out, placed her hangs on either side of his shoulders, and bodily shifted him out of her way. Zucker stood as still as possible in the place Mabel had set him, as she went on her way.
Alex bit their lip, trying to hide their smile and started to walk about the shop, admiring the different clothing on display while they waited. They felt Zucker come up and stand beside them. Alex noticed that he kept glancing over at them, but he didn't say anything. He clearly wanted to talk to them, but he seemed too shy or nervous to do so.
Alex felt something brush against their hand and looked down. One of the tentacles was tentatively touching their hand. Alex shot a look quickly at Zucker's face; he was staring off into space, clearing thinking about something. They looked back down, and turning their hand over, lightly pushed back against it. The tentacle responded by wrapping around their hand, the little suckers sticking to them, and lightly tugged their hand toward him. Alex could easily pull away, but they let the tentacle continue to pull and tug at their hand. Cool…Alex thought loosely.
There was a quick, mortified gasp, and the tentacle released their hand. It and the other three tentacles recoiled back down to his legs, like the petals of a flower closing up. Alex looked up at his face as a furious blush spread across his face up to his ears. He fidgeted nervously. "S-s-sorry." He mumbled frantically.
"No problem," Alex assured him. They couldn't help being a little curious though. "So…"
Mabel happened to arrive back at that moment. She had several bright-colored fabrics draped over her arm. "Okay, so there wasn't a lot back there—sorry!—but I did find something. We have some fairy tale hoods left over from last week. Go ahead and try them on." She lightly pushed Alex toward the fitting room.
Alex stood in front of the mirror a few minutes later, staring at their reflection. "Well," Mabel called from outside. "How's it look?" Alex pulled back the curtain, to show her.
"I look like a gum drop," Alex said, slightly embarrassed. "An ugly, bright orange gumdrop."
"I don't know about that," Mabel said mildly, and Alex remembered too late that the Able sisters make everything by hand—I mean, claw. She reached up at tugged at the side of it. "It does cover your ears and neck, so that's the main thing, right?"
"Ya, I guess so." Alex mumbled. "What other colors you got?"
"Red, yellow, blue, green, and pink. We had others, but these are the only ones left." Alex eyed them skeptically. They are all kinda ugly.
"Get the blue one," Zucker spoke up. "Everyone knows that the blue gumdrops tasted the best."
Alex snorted a laugh before they could stop themselves. "Do they? I guess you have a point." They tried to contain themselves. It's not that funny. Alex knew that it was just the stress of the past few days getting to them. "I'll take it. How much?"
"1,560 Bells for the hood, plus 680 for the gloves, so 2,240 total."
Alex felt themselves stiffen in shock. 1,560 Bells for an ugly hood? But they remembered just in time that they had already accidentally insulted them once. Alex bit their tongue. "You got a deal," They said instead. Mabel smiled brightly as they finished their transaction, making Alex feel better. At least I have my ears and head covered. And I can always earn some more Bells this afternoon.
POV
Zucker/ Octopus
Zucker was not prepared to meet The Human. Mr. Nook had made it clear yesterday that they weren't supposed to approach them, but he hadn't said anything about seeing them from a distance. Everyone had found some reason or pretense to hang about. So when Isabelle had taken off like a shot to the campsite yesterday afternoon, well, everyone suddenly remembered that they had something to do in the plaza area. So, of course, they had all already seen them.
And once Isabelle had dropped them off at Resident Services, she came back out and made it plain that they were to all clear out and give them some space for the rest of the day. Raymond didn't listen—he had even gone up and spoke to them!—but Raymond always did his own thing.
Zucker had seen them this morning as well. He had glanced out his window and had seen them, hacking away at some trees. He had spent a good while watching them through his window, racking his brain over what to say. He didn't want to just say 'hi,' and that was it; he wanted to have a conversation with them. But what to talk about? It wasn't like he could just go 'oh, fancy meeting you here. What brings you to the Island? Oh, you're trapped here? Funny coincidence—same as me!' He finally opted to just giving up. Besides, axing-swinging individuals were better left to themselves. They looked busy, and probably didn't want to talk to him anyway.
He saw them finally gathering up the large supply of chopped wood and head in the direction of Nook's Cranny. He knew that they would be busy in there for a few minutes, so he used the time to go across to the Able Sisters to go talk to Mabel about them. Mabel had no trouble talking to people. Mabel had more patience with him than some of the others in the village, and there was less delicate merchandise in her shop anyway. She seemed to be resigned to the fact that something would be knocked into, pulled down, or tripped over by this point. And her sister wasn't inclined to give her opinion, so maybe Sable tolerated him too.
But then The Human had walked in the door. He wasn't prepared for this at all. He hadn't psyched himself up to actually interact with them yet. He ducked down behind a head-mannequin displaying some type of wide hat—and hoped that they wouldn't notice him. But then Mabel had decided to introduce him to them as well as her sister, and there was nothing else he could do about it.
He had stood up awkwardly, trying to not fidget too much, and to keep all his limps as contained as possible. As soon as The Human looked at him though, he could see it in their eyes. Oh. Oh, they are clever, he had thought with a sinking heart. It wasn't that he disliked clever people—it was just that clever people had to tendency to discover really quickly how…not-clever he was. They had the tendency to get a glazed over look when he talked to them… as if they were listening, but it was to a radio station that they didn't really care for. It just happened to be on, and it would be too much work to change the channel or turn it off. It had the same 'written off' kind of feel to it.
The scientists back at the Lab had written him off fairly quickly. It wasn't that he hadn't tried at their tests. He had, he really had, and that was the problem. He seemed to have a knack for finding some way to do it wrong, no matter how simple the test was. The scientists had gotten more and more frustrated; and when they got frustrated, painful things happened. They kept making the tests easier and easier, but it just didn't work. As far as he was aware, he was the only hybrid experiment that had the distinction of reducing a scientist to tears at one point. Finally, they had decided that he was an absolute debacle of a failure and kicked him to the curb. Or to the Island to be precise.
Even on the Island though, people tended to give him a wide berth. Oh, most of the people were nice enough to him. It was the little things he couldn't help noticing; the little sighs of irritation, the sudden reasons for finding other places to be. He knew why. He was already an uncoordinated klutz, and his tentacles just compounded the problem. They moved of their own accord, whether or not he wanted them to. He could control them if he focused, but they had a tendency to get wrapped around and caught on everything in range around him. Timmy and Tommy had taken to shadowing his footsteps when he was in Nook's Cranny, acting like they expected catastrophe to happen at any given moment. Blathers had banned him from any area of the museum that didn't have glass separating himself from the specimens. Lucky got an absolute panicked look if he came within three feet of him. He had been dragged to Resident Services far too many times, with some villager fussing to Isabelle about him. Tom Nook had sat him down many times and calmly explained about 'being more careful,' and 'property damages,' and 'loss of resources,' and 'Bells don't grow on trees,' and 'hazard to society'. The last time had been the worst. He had sat on the stool in front of the counter, sitting on his hands to keep them still, so they couldn't knock stuff over. Mr. Nook had his elbow on the counter with fingers pressed against his temple, as he slowly tapped his pen against the counter top.
Tap…tap…tap.
Zucker just stared at the pen miserably. He didn't know what to say this time; he had apologized every time, and promised with absolute sincerity that he would try harder and be better. But he just wasn't. He wasn't sure how much of this was because of what the Lab had done to him or how much was carried over from before. Whatever they had done to him at the Lab, it seemed to have knocked some of his brains and memories loose, and they seemed to scatter and roll around like marbles. He did know that he had always seemed to attract the wrong type of attention. With his mop of hair, freckles, klutzy uncoordinated movements, and nervous disposition, it seemed to draw bullies to him like sharks sensing blood. He did remember that he had spent a good chunk of his childhood trying to get from one place to another fairly quickly and as hidden as possible.
Tap…tap…tap.
"Tom," Isabelle had said gently, "he can't help it."
The pen stopped moving. "I know," Mr. Nook said finally. Zucker looked up to see Mr. Nook rub at his eyes tiredly, and he waved to Zucker in a dismissing manner. Zucker got out of the office as quickly as possible before he broke something else. But he had seen it in Mr. Nook's eyes—that horrible 'written off' look.
Failure. Failure even among failures. He ran to his house as fast he could and, slamming the door closed, pressed his back against it. He sat on the floor, knees pulled up to his chest, arms wrapped around his knees. Why did they mix me with an octopus? He thought miserably. Whose bright idea was that? What did they do, have some leftover takoyaki lying around and think 'hey, you know what we haven't tried yet? That.' Fantastic guys. Thanks a lot. At least his house couldn't complain about him being here. He had thought about leaving the village, but the idea of being outside on his own was more terrifying than staying in a place with people that didn't really care if he was there. So he stayed and tried his hardest to cause as little trouble as possible.
"Oh, ummmm, hello," he had finally said to The Human. He remembered that it was customarily for some humans to shake hands at greetings, so he had shoved his hand out at the last possible second, throwing it out between the displays and nearly knocking one over. With a squeak of alarm, he had grabbed at it, but his elbow slammed into another, causing it to start to fall as well. He abandoned his grip on the first display to save the second one, before he belatedly remembered that it was also in danger of falling. Before it hit the floor though, a hand snatched the falling hat, saving it from being squashed when it hit the floor.
"Whoa, that was close." The human had said mildly, as they straightened the brim. "You alright?" Those clever eyes turned up to look at him.
"Yes, I'm fine. Never better." He cautiously let go of the second display, once he was sure it was also not about to make a dive over the edge. "I'm Zucker." He heard a very faint sigh from Sable.
A switch of a smile touched The Human's lips, before they just nodded and smiled gently at him. "Hello, Zucker. I'm Alex." They passed the hat from one hand to the other, and held out their hand to him. "Pleased to meet you," they said formally.
"Pleased to meet you too, Alex." Zucker gripped their hand firmly. He remembered too late that he had suckers on his hands, but Alex didn't shy away from him. They calmly shook his hand, just like he was any other person.
"Anyway… Welcome to Able Sisters, where we sell fashions made lovingly by claw." Mabel said, as she righted the mannequin head and, taking the hat from Alex, placed the hat on it again. "Here, let me give you a quick tour of our shop." She prattled on, dragging Alex around in the shore. Zucker picked a spot that was out of the way of Mabel's tour, and stayed put. He wished he had her knack for talking with people. "So…can I help you find anything?" She asked, finishing up.
"Actually, yes. I need some gloves," Alex held out their palms. Zucker winced when he saw their blisters.
"Sure thing, hang on." Mabel went to the back area and opened a drawer. "We don't keep these on display, but we do have them." She came back and produced some fingerless gloves. "These should do the trick."
"Thank you." Alex tugged them on. "Feels great."
"Good. Anything else I could help you with?"
"Yes. Isabelle mentioned that I need some kind of hat or hood or something. To cover these." Alex pointed at their own ears. Zucker was confused for a second as to why they would have to cover their ears. Are they cold or something? They look completely normal—oh, right.
Mabel apparently had caught on right away. "Good idea," she agreed, with a snap of her fingers. "Um, I'm afraid we don't have much in stock right now."
"Mabel, check the back room. There should be something in storage," Sable mumbled quietly. Zucker was surprised. Sable rarely spoke when customers were in the store. She was the only one who seemed shyer around people then he was.
"I'll go check." Mabel headed toward the storeroom. Unfortunately, that meant he was right in her path, and she was walking towards him. Zucker hesitated—should I move to the right or left—and ended up not moving at all. Mabel didn't even flinch though. He froze as she put a hand on either side of his shoulders and firmly shifted him out of her way. Zucker stumbled slightly, but then stood as still as possible in the place, Mabel had set him.
He sent a frantic glance over to Alex, but they were wandering around the shop, clearly looking over the different clothing and styles. He cautiously moved closer to them. He kept shooting glances at them, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. What should I say? Maybe ask what they like about that hat? What they hate about that hat?
Mr. Nook said that they arrived in a sailboat. Ask them about that? That might make them sad though. Shesh, I would be sad if I lost my sailboat. Although, I guess they didn't really lose it. 'Stolen' is a better word. At least they weren't stolen with the sailboat. That would be bad. Really bad. Scary bad, I don't want to think about it. Maybe don't ask about that then.
He suddenly noticed that Alex was looking down curiously at something. He glanced down, and saw that one of his tentacles was wrapped about Alex's hand. Zucker gasped in mortified horror, and recalled all his tentacles close to him, where they belonged and where he wished they would stay. He could feel an embarrassed blush start to crawl up his face toward his ears. I touched them. They must be so disgusted. Zucker fidgeted. "S-s-sorry," he tried to apologize as quickly as possible.
"No problem," Alex assured him with a shrug. They hesitated for a second. "So…" they began.
Mabel happened to arrive back at that moment, much to Zucker's relief. She had several bright-colored fabrics draped over her arm. "Okay, so there wasn't a lot back there—sorry!—but I did find something. We have some fairy tale hoods left over from last week. Go ahead and try them on." She lightly pushed Alex toward the fitting room.
Mabel and Zucker were both outside the fitting room a few minutes later. This time, both of them were waiting nervously. "Well," Mabel called finally. "How's it look?" Alex pulled back the curtain, to show her.
"I look like a gum drop," Alex said. There was a slightly embarrassed tone to their voice. "An ugly, bright orange gumdrop."
"I don't know about that," Mabel said mildly. Zucker winced; Mabel handled criticism fairly well, but Sable seemed to take everything too personally. Maybe she didn't hear them? Mabel had reached up and tugged at the side of hood. "It does cover your ears and neck, so that's the main thing, right?"
"Ya, I guess so." Alex mumbled. "What other colors you got?"
"Red, yellow, blue, green, and pink. We had others, but these are the only ones left." Alex was eyeing them skeptically.
They need to get one, Zucker realized. If they don't, then they will be in danger. "Get the blue one," Zucker spoke up without thinking. "Everyone knows that the blue gumdrops tasted the best." Do they? Zucker was slightly horrified that he had just said that. Goodness, I barely remember what gumdrops even tasted like. Do I even like gumdrops? Mabel was giving him a 'please don't help' look.
But Alex had snorted a laugh before Zucker could take back what he said. "Do they? I guess you have a point." Zucker was slightly confused. They were laughing, but it didn't feel like they were laughing at him. It feels...kinda nice. It's a friendly kind of laugh. Alex addressed Mabel. "I'll take it. How much?"
"1,560 Bells for the hood, plus 680 for the gloves, so 2,240 total."
Alex stiffened slightly, but then nodded. "You got a deal," they said. Mabel smiled brightly as they finished their transaction. Zucker felt a nervous smile break out on his face too. He wasn't quite sure, but it felt like Alex had bought it partly because of what he had said. It felt almost like he had helped. And that felt…nice.
POV
Raymond/ cat
A little under a year ago
Raymond adjusted his tie with one hand as he walked back to his work desk. He took a sip from his coffee as he walked. As far as he was concerned, he had earned his coffee and cookies today. As he got closer, he could tell that someone was waiting for him in his chair. He felt a quick stab of anxiety. Did someone finally realize what I am doing? But his worry evaporated when he caught sight of the purple hair sticking over the top of his chair. "Well, well, well." Bob spun around in his chair in a lazy circle. "Look how the tables have turned. Who's late today?"
Raymond smirked at him. "The paying customer is never late. Get out of my chair."
"Certainly, Paying Customer." Bob stood up and mockingly bowed. He gestured grandly to the bag resting on the ground. "Your chicken sandwich and onion rings, my Lord. Don't forget to tip."
"Why is my food sitting on the ground?"
"Technically, it is still sealed in the bag, and the bag in sitting on the ground." Bob glanced pointedly over Raymond's cluttered workspace. "And where else would I put it?"
Without missing a beat, Raymond pointed to stack of precariously-looking stack of paper. "There. It is more stable than it looks."
"That's not saying that much, because it doesn't look stable at all," Bob mumbled. Raymond ignored him and, to prove his point, placed the bag gently on the papers, followed by his cup of coffee, and the two cookies he had stored in his back pocket. "Hey, why do you have those?"
"Tuesday," Raymond said as an explanation. "P.E. ran late," Raymond took a sip of his coffee and rolled his eyes. "I was one of the last ones to go today. Which is fine; the kid smuggled me an extra cookie."
Bob eyed them through the clear wrapper. "They look pretty good."
"Oh, they taste even better then they look. Here," Raymond tossed him one. "Here's your tip. They make the whole P.E. thing almost worth it. Almost," he continued, as Bob unwrapped his cookie. He arched his back in a stretch and groaned. "Why is this company so weird anyway?"
"Your company is always doing something weird. What's the latest?" Bob said around his mouthful of cookie. He nodded, "And you're right; these are amazing."
"How dare you doubt my ability to judge a cookie," Raymond smirked. "Well, last week there was a survey sent out about 'job satisfaction'. It was asking things like 'how satisfied are you with your current position, current salary, work environment, yada yada yada'."
"Well, what did you say?"
"I lied, probably the same as everyone else here. It was a complete waste of time. The last question was super weird though. It asked what your favorite animal was and/or what animal you most identified with. That's not even related to company business."
"Maybe it's supposed to be like one of those personality tests. Can't you be like an otter, or lion or something in one of those? So what did you say?"
"A cat, of course," Raymond opened the bag carefully. The stack of papers really was unstable. It would ruin his point to Bob if he accidentally knocked them off.
"You would. You seem like a cat person: weird and quirky. "
"What about you? What's your favorite?"
"Dog, obviously."
"That explains why you are so clingy and needy then."
"Whatever, Mr. Independent. I would love to see you try to pack your own lunch, instead of ordering out every day," Bob laughed. "So how is your…other…problem going?"
"I think I hit a dead end," Raymond grumbled as he bit into his sandwich. "I thought I was making some headway for a while there. I kept finding references to some other secret operation. I can't tell what it is, the name changes in several places, if it is given a name at all. 'Project number 00.k,' 'Project n00k,' just '00.k,'or in some cases just 'Project'. Whatever that is, it's a financial black hole. It seems to be connected to the large amounts of money just disappearing."
"Sounds promising. So what did you discover?"
"I discovered that is where my lack of clearance level locks me out," Raymond said sourly.
"It locks you out because it's none of your business," Mr. Hawkins's voice piped up from across the aisle. Raymond and Bob looked up to see him coming over. "Is this what you have been doing during work hours, Raymond?"
Raymond bristled. "Yes, because it is my business to check company funds. Mr. Hawkins, this whole thing is bizarre. What if someone is embezzling company funds? They could be. Nothing about this makes sense if you dig deeper beyond just the surface records."
Mr. Hawkins sighed. "Raymond, how long have you worked here? Almost five years now? I have worked here for almost fifteen. I have been here almost since Mr. Nook founded it. Listen, this company is changing. If you want to stay here, you mind your own business and stay in your lane, and others will stay in theirs."
"But, we—"
Mr. Hawkins cut him off with a shake of his head. "Stay in your lane. Curiosity killed the cat after all."
Raymond glared up at him. "Maybe if the cat was smarter, he wouldn't have been caught at all."
Mr. Hawkins gave a quick, harsh laugh. "You are smart, Raymond, I'll give you that. Smart enough to get yourself into trouble." He sighed again. "You aren't going to let this go, are you?"
"Nope. I mean, no, Sir."
"Fine, scoot." He made a 'shoo' motion with his hand as he came up beside Raymond. Raymond moved out of the way, causing Bob to get pushed back as well. Mr. Hawkins sat down, and with fingers flashing across the keys, typed in his password.
"You don't want to do this on your computer?"
"Heck, no. If someone is going to come snooping about this, I want the I.P. address to come back to you. Better your butt then mine." He turned and looked up at Raymond and Bob dead in the eyes. "This is company secrets, understand? Neither one of you ever talk about this to anyone else, got it?"
"Got it," they both agreed. Raymond smiled in gratitude at him. "Thanks for helping me."
"Whatever. It's most likely just some new project getting off the ground. I'm sure that whoever signed off on it just doesn't want everyone else to know about it yet. It's going to just be some boring…" His voice trailed off as he skimmed over the information.
Raymond tried to speed read around him, but he was moving down the documents too quickly; only some of the words were jumping out at him. Dr. Jones. Canis lupus. Success. Failure. Octopoda. Information. Dr. Shrunk. Genetics. Felis catus. Time. Control group. Twins. Success. Failure. Failure. Failure. Failure. Redd.
With a gasp, Mr. Hawkins closed out the file. "Whatever this is, the head of the company is involved." He exited out of the programs. "Where is all of your information about this?"
Raymond pointed to the desktop icon. "What are you going to do, go to the board about—hey!" Raymond cried as Mr. Hawkins causally deleted his work. "What are you doing—?"
"Shut up." Mr. Hawkins said sternly. "Listen to me. Whatever…that…was, forgot you saw it. It is trouble. Big time trouble. Do not get involved."
"But—"
"But nothing." Mr. Hawkins looked at both of them, and Raymond could see the sadness in his eyes. "Listen, you two, this company—something is wrong with it. I don't know what it is, and I don't want to know. I stay here, do my job, punch my card at the end of the day, and go home and try to forget about it. I only stay because I have given too much time here and I'm too old and tired to find a new job.
"You're still in your prime though. If you don't think you can stomach working here, then get out now. Turn in your two weeks' notice, and walk away. This conversation is closed. I don't want to hear another word about it." And with that he turned and walked away, heading out of the office area, leaving Bob and Raymond alone.
"Well, that was different." Bob said softly. "What are you going to do?"
Raymond sighed and ran both his hands up his face and through his hair, lacing them behind his neck. "I don't know. I don't want to quit; I have never quit at anything before…"
"This isn't quite the same thing as quitting baseball…"
Raymond snorted. "I don't like being told to mind my own business. It's part of my job to not mind my business, you know. I'm supposed to ask questions, and dig deeper, especially if it doesn't look right. I don't think I can just let it go." Raymond rolled his eyes skyward, thinking. "Even if I quit, it would still bother me. I think I would always wonder…especially if it turns out it was something really, really bad and there was something I could have done to stop it."
He groaned and closed his eyes. "All my work is down the drain, though. It took me months, and I'm going to have to start all over."
Bob looked at him seriously. "You really aren't going to let this go, are you?"
"No," Raymond said, "I think not. It would bother me too much, like an itch I couldn't scratch."
"Hmmm," Bob bit his lip. "Alright then, I'm taking over the driver's seat."
Surprised, Raymond watched as Bob sat down his chair. Bob pulled a flash drive out of his pocket and inserted it into the computer. "I might not be a real detective, but I do know how to recover deleted files." He started his program and fingers flying across the keys, got to work. "Oh, and do you have a sticky note?"
"Ya, here," Raymond handed him one. Bob penciled down a list of letters and numbers. "That was his password. This should give you clearance into those other files you wanted. Just make sure to log out each time. And clear the search history if you can."
Raymond looked at him in surprise. "How did you see his password? It was encrypted on the screen?"
"Watched his hands. What do you think I am, some amateur?" Bob snorted. "I do want to do this for a living someday." He pulled the recovered files back onto the desktop and closed out his program. "Raymond, you are going to be careful, right?" He turned to look up him, and Raymond could see that he was being deadly serious. "I'm going to feel really, really bad if I enabled you to get yourself into some serious trouble. And he," he nodded in the direction of Mr. Hawkins's cubicle, "wasn't messing around. This sounds really dangerous."
Raymond nodded. "Thanks, Bob, I promise I'll be careful. I won't get caught. Besides," he gave him a cocky grin, "what's the worst that can happen?"
()-()
Mr. Lyle looked up at his computer as his email pinged. Opening up the email, he quickly looked over it. Hmmmm, one of the auditors is being nosy. Question is which trail to follow, the password owner or the I.P. address for the computer? He typed up his response. Watch both for now, but keep me informed of the situation. He sent his response and looked down at the list of things Mr. Redd still wanted him to do. He wouldn't bother Mr. Redd about this yet. Better to go in with solid information then simple guesswork. But he would be sure to report it before this went too far.
Author's note!
Response to Zachery 31: Thanks! You never know though...
Based on the in-game conversion that you can spend 500 miles to get a 3,000 Bells voucher at the Nook Stop, each mile is worth 6 Bells. That means that your initial loan of 49,800 Bells should come out to 8,300 miles. Mr. Nook gave you a huge discount on your first loan, and you probably didn't even know it. didn't even know it.
Thanks for reading my third chapter! As always, I appreciate any and all reviews, favorites and follows. It is really encouraging to know that people are interested in this story.