Chapter Text
Its been a bit after MDM and Alkaloid seems to keep growing in popularity with each job they do and live they preform, finally able to somewhat relax without being in debt.
A new opportunity was pushed their way though, as a manufacturing company has reached out for an offer to make official alkaloid merch.
"Aaaaaa i cant belive we'll be getting our own merch!! How love~ly!!!" Aira excitedly states, currently all of alkaloid are sat in the cafeteria, seemingly their normal meeting place, as they gather to talk about this new development.
"Alkaloid sure has become popular, though im a bit suprised they want us to have merchandise so soon...i guess they're just trying to cash in while they can" Tatsumi laughs softly, surely non of them would belive somthing like this would happen when the unit first started out.
"Um...why would we have our own wood chips?" Hiiro qestioned,
"Ugh, thats mulch hiro, merch is short for merchandise, like tatsu-san just said" Aira explained still a bit annoyed at hiiros obliviousness to modern city things, but at least its much better then when they had first met.
"Ah! I see!...whats merchandise...?" He still didnt get it.
"its like stuff but with a brand on it, like alkaloid merch would have our unit logo and our faces on various types of stuff, mainly bags, bottles, folders, clothes, stationary, there's lots of choices." Tatsumi happily explained, hiiro nodded in understanding.
"W-wait our faces are going on the merchandise?!?" Mayoi quietly shrieked, not wanting to draw attention from and bystanders in the cafeteria with them.
"Thats usually whats used for idol merch," tatsumi thinks, "ive seen some shirts and fans with fellow idols on them, im sure its not too out of the ordinary."
"Its basically a staple of idol merch!! Unless someone wanted to be low-key, most idol merch is just the idols face" Aira chimes in.
"Haha~♪ you'd know better then anyone else Aira" Tatsumi commented.
'Would anyone even buy somthing with my disgusting face on it????' Mayoi internally panicked, what about the material that would be wasted on making merch out of his disgusting image, his spiraling thoughts interrupted when tatsumi added;
"You have a very beautiful face mayoi-san, im sure many people would love to have something with your face on it♪, what exactly is the manufacturer making?" He turned his attention to hiiro has he was the one who was contacted with all the details.
Mayoi died on spot (internally) and didnt contribute much to the conversation.
The others kept discussing their merch, and they were later soon told that everything should be produced and in stores in a few months time, which they happily waited for.
. . . ♤♡◇♧ . . .
Aira was sprinting through the hallways of ES hiiro and tatsumi had idol work leaving mayoi the only one he could get a hold of to tell him the 'love~ly' news. He pulled out his phone trying to text the phantom of his arrival, but to no avail, he never responded.
He kept running till he was at the first floor of Starmony dorms, looking at the name plates by each door he finnaly reached Mayois dorm. 'He should be in here, i didnt see him at the training room, he better not be in the ceiling again' Aira sighed as he knocked on the door, and to his suprised it opened to an also suprised Tomoya.
"Aira-san! Good morning, what brings you here?" Tomoya greeted Aira.
"Is Mayoi in there? I need to tell him somthing!" Aira said out of breath.
"Uhh, i think so? I didnt see him leave this morning, unless he escaped through the vents, but i heard management is sealing them so other people couldnt mess with them-" Tomoya turned his head into the dorm looking at the vents, they seem intact but there was no trace of mayoi anywhere, his bed was practically untouched since the day they moved in.
"Uuhhg where could he be!? Why dose he always have to be in some werid place" Aira sighed, but just then,
"Imsorryimrighthere!" Mayoi squeaked as he rolled from under the bed, scaring both Tomoya and Aira.
"Im sorry im sorry!!" Mayoi spat out while he slowly got up, trying his best not to hit his head on the bed frame.
"Ayase, you know you can sleep on your bed right? Its less creepy then sleeping in the werid places you do!" Tomoya shook his head, this apprently being a long running issue.
"It just felt wrong for a creature like me to use this bed, im sorry!!!" Mayoi said defeated.
Aira was rethinking his choice of telling Mayoi the news he had, but the other members wernt available and he had to tell someone.
"Mayo-san come on i need to show you somthing!" He walked over and grabbed mayoi dragging him from this horribly werid scene, he thanked Tomoya and left the dorm.
"Aira you shouldn't-!" But before mayoi could even start his usual self-deprecating nonsense aira shoved a phone in his face.
"Mayo look!!! Alkaloids merch is now in stores do you know what that means!?" Aira brushed off mayois weirdness as he couldnt contain his excitement. Mayoi blinked and gently took the phone aira shoved at him. There was a post about new items being available at an idol goods store, and Alkaloid was mentioned to have products that were launching today.
"Mayo," Aira said looking dead into the other's eyes "we need to go to that store, ASAP" mayoi was terrified hes never seen Aira so scarily serious, other then while training, he slowly nodded afraid to make aira angry at him.
"Thats great~♪! Now lets go, the store dosent open till noon and we need to get there first!"
"Sh-shouldnt we get changed first...? im sure you dont want to be seen in your training uniform..rigght?" Mayoi shakily said, Aira looked at Mayoi then himself, both clearly not ready to go out in public, he cletched his teeth in frustration, remembering he left his bag at the pratice room too.
"Quickly!! Be as quick as you can!!!" He yelled at mayoi while running to his dorm (since it was closest) mayoi also made haste back to his dorm.
After the hassle of changing they met outside of the ES building, they couldnt grab a company car (since niether knew how to drive) and had to run to try and get to the store at a decent time. It was still well before noon but the line were gonna be hell.
Mayoi especially felt sick as he was going to be forced into huge crowds of people in a confined space, everything in him wanted to reject aira and stay in the cool darkness that was under his bed but he also didnt want to let his junior down, he knew how much this ment to aira, as the 'pro' idol merch collector he was. (At least pro in mayois eyes as hes never collected anything other then trash hed find and later reuse for his dioramas)
"Ahaha there it is and it looks like we beat the crowd!" Aira happily states, while mayoi looks on in horror, they clearly had diffrent definitions of a crowd. What looked like a sea of people waited by the door, sure it wasnt enough to fill a live venue it was still enough for mayoi to want to turn tail and run the other way, or take cover under the darkness of a near by tree.
"Mayo-san are you alright?"
Like that was even a question, mayoi was pale and shaking, he didnt want to do this but as 'a senior of alkaloid it was his duty to help out his juniors' or however Tatsumi put it, he couldnt let them down like he has so many times before.
"Dont worry mayo, i have a game plan," Aira started, has he took out his phone and showed mayoi a layout of the stores floorplan. "Ive been here so many times and know where each section is, they usually have new stuff further back so all we need to do is make sure we're the first ones in and make a bee line to the back! Simple!"
They navigated through the crowd, somwhow getting to the froung by the doors, it was almost noon and the doors would be opening soon. Mayoi started to feel dizzy, there were still so many people, all he had to do was quickly follow aira see the alkaloid merch and get out, simple just like aira said.