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Ed steps through the door into the abandoned gift shop, placing his backpack on the floor to rest his arms, glancing around at the overpriced knickknacks, now faded in colour and now worse for wear.
“Welcome to the indigo park gift shop!” A monitor flicks on, as Rambley starts to speak, “Where you can get gifts for the ones you love, or for yourself- wait, where’d you go?!” He continues and shouts, as Ed has vanished.
Looking around for where his buddy went, he notices him in a large section themed around… Lloyd.
The monitor next to him flicks on, “Hey, buddy, Why not check out the rest of the gift shop?! I’m sure you could find MUCH better stuff!”
“No, I’m ok, just checking out the stuff here first…” Ed says, half heartedly as he checks out a Lloyd hoodie.
“Oh well please, Feel free to take as much as you like! …why do we even still have those…” Rambley says then mutters under his breath, slightly excited at the thought of getting rid of that old Lloyd merchandise.
As Ed wonders throughout the abandoned gift shop, Rambley notices he has a distinct lack of interest in all the others.
When Ed walks up to the cash register, Rambley at the monitor notices what he got…
A Lloyd plushie
A Lloyd action figurine
A Lloyd hoodie
A Lloyd shirt
A Lloyd flashlight
A Lloyd pencil
A Lloyd ears hat
A Lloyd bow tie
A Lloyd water bottle
And…
…one Rambley plush and one Molly plush…
“O-oh, are you a fan of Molly?” Rambley asks in an attempt to distract himself from the mountain of almost ALL of their Lloyd merchandise, which seems like Ed only stopped so he didn’t run out of room in his backpack.
“Oh, no, it’s for my mother.”
“Ah… I see… Well, your total comes out to… Nothing…” He chokes out, remembering the free percent off discount.
Both are interrupted however, by a rustling sound.
As they both turn to look, they see a shadowy figure scrounging around through Ed’s backpack.
As Ed runs towards them, they run, dropping the backpack.
Ed picks it up, checking to see what was stolen, surprised to only his flashlight missing. Ed puts his new stuff in his backpack, but puts on the hoodie and hat. He takes out the new Lloyd flashlight he got to look to where he went, either jet stream junction or… the theatre. Rambley encourages they check jet stream junction first, only to be met with a giant locked door, so, (begrudgingly), he and Ed go into a theatre. =============================== Entering the theatre, they hear a low voice singing, sounding broken from disuse. The seats are all filled with plushies from the various gift shops, and in the centre, just in front of the stage, is Ed’s flashlight being propped up by an empty popcorn bucket so it’s pointing at the stage. The light of the flashlight illuminates the stage, revealing… Lloyd. Lloyd looks down at Ed and hops off the stage, approaching him. “Who are you?! Are you a thief?! You dare intrude upon MY theatre-“ Lloyd starts, then stops, noticing Ed wearing his merchandise.
“Oh, you’re a fan!” his tone quickly changes, holding out a paw for Ed to shake, “of course you are, how could you not! I do truly apologise for my unruly behaviour…”
“You’re…” Ed starts, “That’s right! The proud, Lloydford. L. Lion!” Lloyd finishes.
“Wow- you, you’re here! You were always one of my favourites-“ “of course you were!” Lloyd interrupts, picking up the flashlight and walking backstage, “Come, there must be PLENTY you wish to talk about!” Lloyd interrupts.
As Ed walks up to follow, the screen backstage flicks on, revealing a (highly agitated) Rambley.
“Uh, buddy, weren’t we gonna go meet Molly?!” Rambley interrupts, “Oh, yeah, sorry Lloyd…” Ed says, turning to him.
“Oh, not a pain at all! In fact…” Lloyd starts, before rummaging through some boxes and pulling out a keycard to hand to Ed, “I believe the door IS locked, yes? This should unlock it!”
“Thank you… Lloyd…” Rambley says, like he’s about to puke, “Well, see ya later! We’re (FINALLY) gonna go see Molly-“ Rambley starts, before being interrupted by Lloyd, “Nonsense, Rambley! Leaving without me?! It would be GREAT to leave the theatre again and to go see everyone! Bonus, I get to talk more with our guest!” He says.
“Oh, oh no, that REALLY won’t be necessary-“ Rambley gets interrupted, again, but by Ed this time, “Of course! Come on, Let’s go!”
So, now with the vain lion as a part of the group, Rambley is a whole lot less excited to be showing Ed around.