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————Story One————
Alicia sat by Dylan's side, drink in hand.
The two had decided to spend the day hanging out, Blank and Davy settling themselves at a table close by.
“How was work?” Dylan asked, drinking some of his milkshake.
Dylan was busy today. He’d run a few errands, had to bring Mia back to the Bash after finding her, and go to a doctor’s appointment. The last bit, he didn’t want to do, but with Blank being around he couldn’t avoid it.
At the least, Dylan was fine, and the appointment went okay. They saw the milkshake as a bonus, really.
“It was well for the most part. There was a lady who came in, arguing about some merchandise, but I handled it,” Alicia replied.
Alicia was out of uniform, wearing a blue dress, one with white accents and black ribbon. Her hair was in a low ponytail, and she seemed content as she sipped at her drink. She was well with work, she didn’t mind it. Alicia might even enjoy it, and with Blank, Davy, and Uncle Vincent around, it was true.
“What was wrong with the merchandise? Was it damaged?”
“No, she just didn’t like the design. She said Cindy’s plushies didn’t match herself completely.”
“What?” Blank raised an eyebrow, piping in. “It matches her as best as it can. It’s a plushie, not a one on one model?”
Davy only shrugged. “People complain over the dumbest of things. She probably just wanted to argue in general.”
“Was that the only person, or was there anyone else?” Dylan tilted his head, glancing up to Alicia.
“It was just her. No one else really argued.”
“Alright. Well, that’s good. Has anything else happened?” Dylan was curious.
“Uncle Vincent read a few stories. Some of them were fun, a kid tried to steal one of the books though!”
Dylan hummed. “Was it Mary?”
A nod confirmed it. “Mary tried to take a book about cats. Vinnie didn’t let her take it home.”
“Was it that one about the, ah, warriors? Or whatever?” Davy questioned.
“Mhm! Mary’s been trying to take all those books home. She really likes that series.”
“She didn’t ask Vinnie for the books?”
“No.”
“If she wants the series so bad, why doesn’t she just ask?” Blank was, safe to admit, a little confused. If she asked Vinnie, maybe he’d be fine with it. Maybe Dylan would, too.
“No, I told her she can’t take books from the building,” Dylan clarified. “She can read them in the building, in any Candy’s property, just not take it home with her.”
Mary pouted a little, when Dylan said she couldn’t. But, Dylan had reasoning.
One is how the books were, despite being popular and sold at various places, not easy to get a hold of. He didn’t know how that was possible, but it was. The cat books were nearly always sold out or otherwise.
Another reason was that multiple kids wanted to read those books. Various kids came to Vinnie, went to even a penguin or two, and asked if they had those specific books. If Mary were to take them, bring them home, that’d be one less book and more possible chaos. Dylan didn’t underestimate just the chaos and rebellion toddlers and young children could cause.
And his third reason was purely because Cindy and Scribble read those books. Various animatronics at the restaurant read them. While they may not make it obvious, like saying it aloud, he’s definitely noticed, and he didn’t want to feel bad if they couldn’t read it, only for him to order multiple of the same book for each of them. Sharing the books was easier, especially when Vinnie’s library was right there, and they didn’t have to go too far to read what they wanted.
Mary can want the books, she can read them on Candy’s property as many times as she’d like. But she wasn’t taking them home.
“Maybe we can buy her a set of them when her birthday comes up,” Blank reasoned. “If it keeps her from stealing the books from Vinnie, maybe.”
“Well, that- yeah. I guess we could do that, but she’d have to wait for her birthday. I’m not buying her the books immediately when I know for a fact that she just tried to steal one today. Alicia just mentioned it,” Dylan countered, adjusting his letterman’s sleeve. “She’s not gettin’ the books immediately. I’m not rewarding her attempt at burglary.”
“I figured that much. That’s why I said about her birthday. It’s in a couple months,” Blank replied, nodding once. “She shouldn’t be trying to steal books, but for her birthday we could get her some.”
Davy hummed, his fingers tapping the table lightly, as if he was thinking.
“What’s up Davy?” Dylan looked over his shoulder, watching for a moment.
“Do I bring it up now, or do I not?”
Blank turned to face the cat opposite of him. “Bring up what, bud?”
“I think Mary learned how to get onto one of the computers.”
“She what now?” Dylan blinked.
How, did Mary, figure out how to get onto any of the computers?
Dylan was certain that he’d never put the password in with her nearby. Did she convince one of the animatronics to tell her?
Blank raised an eyebrow, watching as Alicia looked away. “Alicia.”
Davy and Dylan turned, facing her for a moment. The blonde narrowed his eyes as he asked a question. “Did you tell Mary my password?”
Alicia’s gaze went back to the group, shaking her head no.
She didn’t mean to tell her, Alicia was repeating the password to herself! It was merely unfortunate that Mary was in the other room. But Dylan didn’t need to know that!
“I’m squinting at you.”
Alicia’s smile returned as she took a sip, moving the conversation forward. “How was your day Dylan?”
“Eh well, I’d prefer that I didn’t have to do errands, but it was fine anyway. But now I need to change my password or something. Thanks, Alicia.”
Alicia only smiled, biting back a laugh as she took another sip.
Blank hummed, his own phone dinging. Blank picked it up.
Davy peeked over his shoulder with a tail curling in interest. His eyes held mischief as he tilted his head. “Rabbit?”
“Don't,” Blank warned.
“I'm not doing anything.”
“I know you, Davy.”
“Yeah, because you're both old men,” Dylan nodded.
Davy shot him a look before snapping back to Blank's phone, trying to steal a peek at the text. “How's your boyfriend?”
“Davy, I will punch you.”
“.. Ignoring the glare Blank’s giving to Davy,” Dylan commented. “Alicia, you saw Adrien yesterday, right? Are they okay?”
“Adrien’s okay,” Alicia mentioned. “We were watching the news.”
“I don’t think many people actually watch the news anymore. I feel like they just depe- You know, I’m just going to cut myself off right there,” Dylan hummed.
“There was a new debut on Ivy’s recent location. Adrien thought it’d be the newbie news anchor.”
“Oh.” The blonde blinks. “I don’t even know who’s on the news. Was Adrien right?”
“No. It was the same reporter as last week. The newbie does the reports on Sundays and Tuesdays.”
Alicia lifted her cup and drank some of the milkshake once again. Strawberry, creamy and sweet. It was good, and admittedly delicious in her opinion.
“Wait, they have muffins.” Dylan pointed out.
“Hm?” Alicia looked over. They did. Blueberry muffins, banana muffins, plain and even chocolate too. They missed it, when they ordered their drinks. But they saw the sweet treats now, in the glass case closer to the wall.
One glance at Dylan and Blank could tell he was considering getting one.
“Blank guard my drink.” Dylan got up and walked to the counter, before the canvas could say anything to him.
“Why would you need to guard his drink?” Davy blinked, head tilting halfway.
“I dunno. Make sure no one bumps into it? He did leave it close to the edge..” Blank trailed off, thinking for a second. He reached his hand out and brought the cup to his and Davy’s table, and kept it four inches from the edge.
“Well why put it on this table? What if I want to knock it down now?”
Blank countered. “Davy if you do that I’ll take your eyes! Do not tempt me.”
“Rude.”
Alicia smiled, taking another sip.
It was fun spending time with them again. Outside of work, specifically too. Some days were exhausting, others easy. Dylan and the animatronics being here and there often eased tension or simply brought comfort. And of course, her uncle, Matthew, and Marcus were around as well. Alicia enjoyed spending time with them. It was a positive despite varying issues. It mattered.
“Are you planning on doing anything later Alicia?” Davy hummed.
“Not really. Almost everybody’s busy as is.”
“Oh. Me and Rabbit are going to the bookstore later, if you want to come along,” Blank offered. “I’m sure Rabbit wouldn’t mind.”
Alicia looked up from her drink. “Maybe.”
Dylan walked back over, boots stepping on bright tile. “Maybe what? What’d I miss?”
“I might go with Blank and Rabbit to the bookstore,” Alicia explained. “They’re going there later.”
“Oh okay.” Dylan nodded. “That’d probably be like a good thing.”
He held a chocolate chip muffin, moving the liner to take a bite from it. “Dang. This is actually good. You- I oughta come here more.”
Davy tilted his head as the conversation shifts, Blank piping in about something else.
And Alicia? She listened to Blank ramble.
———— Story Two ————
It was rather empty in the room but a trio was talking happily while creating artworks. Walls lined with art from children before, matching chairs and tables with checkered floors. Vinnie was sitting on the edge of Davy's stage speaking with the blue cat, Blank nearby at a table. And Alicia? She was sitting with Blank, listening as the whiteboard and her sketched.
Some time beforehand, maybe an hour, maybe three, Vinnie was busy.
When you finally finish a day of telling stories to energetic children and curious customers, you get the chance to calm down from any negative parents you dealt with, get time to clean up after everything. That was the way it was. Some days were a bit difficult , especially with irritating parents or consistent demand from others, but for today? Today was well.
Vinnie had just taken books from the tables, moving them back to shelves and reorganizing them as needed. Sometimes children put them right back where they belonged, other times not exactly. Nevertheless, all forgotten books were put back on the shelf.
Vinnie placed another on a shelf just as Blank walked in, opportunity to check on him.
“Oh. Hey, Blank. What's up?” Vinnie asked.
“Nothing really. I noticed there was a lot more kids today then usual. Need any help, Vinnie?” Blank questioned, receiving a nod in return.
“Maybe a little,” Vinnie answered. He glanced at Blank, handing him a stack of books carefully. He set back to organizing the stacks on the floor, trusting Blank to know where everything went. Blank had learned just how Vinnie keeps track of everything in there, he'd grown to remember what the preferences were as to where the books would go!
The two spent moments organizing, fixing each shelf to the way it was before. Even if it'd be fiddled with by the next day, it mattered enough to them, and gave them something to do.
Occasionally they'd speak. Why wouldn't they? Friends chatted with each other, didn't they?
Near twenty minutes went by, and every book was put away. They then switched to cleaning up everything else, including pushing chairs in. By then, it'd been thirty more minutes. Somehow, a child managed to lodge a plushie against two shelves. How and when that happened, Vinnie didn't know. He didn't see it, maybe it was when he was in the backroom or telling one of the stories.
Vinnie and Blank took a break, which was fair for how long it'd taken.
Blank was chatting, when the topic of yesterday came up.
“Is Sherbet okay?”
“They’re fine bud. Dylan managed to clean out all the cupcakes from their hinges. Still don't know how they got them when they weren't near the bakery though,” Blank responded.
"I'm thinking we should really update the buddy system for them again,” Blank added, fiddling with a marker he'd brought from his room. Some drawings were on him, most made by kids. Flowers, cats, dogs, bows and more. He drew a bunny himself, on his arm minutes before.
“I thought Wilford was supposed to go with them?”
“He was. I think it'd be better if someone else went with them, though.”
The two chatted for some minutes more, before Alicia came into the room. Blank noticed her first.
“Oh hey Alicia!” He greeted.
“Hi Blank,” She went over to them. Today, her hair was tied into a ponytail.
“How are you doing?” Blank asked.
Vinnie shifted in his chair to look over to her.
“Hi uncle Vince,” She greeted before answering to Blank, “I'm okay. There were a lot more people than yesterday but I didn't hear any complaints.”
“Well that's good,” The whiteboard nodded.
“Are you and Vinnie okay?”
“We're fine Alicia,” the puppet commented. “Everything went fine. We did have to reorganize the shelves though.”
“Did that okay? Where did that plushie come from?” She pointed at the plush on the table.
“It was between some of the shelves,” The taller of the trio stated.
“It looks cute!” Alicia cheered when she picked it up and studied it. Purple, ruffled but soft fabric. A long tail, wide eyes with a red piece of fabric on its neck. Was this a character from something? She saw it before. Somewhere.
“I'll put it in lost and found,” she stepped back. “There's some other stuff in Fylan’s room that has to go there anyway.”
“Oh we can do that for you,” Blank reassured. “We'll get what's in Fylan's room.”
Alicia smiled and nodded. “Thank you Blank!”
With that she turned, heading to the office on the first floor, where Lost and Found was at.
By the time she just stepped out of the room, Blank and Vinnie had just gotten there. She decided to wait a moment, letting them place everything in the bins before leaving the room.
“Is there something you want to do bud?” The whiteboard asked Alicia, to which she answered.
“I was gonna go to your room and draw.”
“That's fair.”
Vinnie originally planned to go back to reading, but he made his way to Blank and Davy's room, following his friend and niece.
Blank got the paper out, markers, pencils and crayons and pens as well.
Alicia, she was great at art. A bit extraordinary in it really, and she could be quick with making something wonderful.
Vinnie sat at a table nearby, chatting with Blank as Blank himself doodled with Alicia.
Topics shifted from what's been going on each day, to what they'd done when they were on outings. Rabbit and Blank had a date that Vinnie teased about lightly, Wilford and Sherbet had somehow snuck out and got caught doing stand-up comedy at a movie theater?? How that happened, no one knew.
Alicia commented about her own week as well.
“Me and Adrien had a small argument. They thought that a specific news reporter would be on but I knew it was another one.”
There was a bit of insistence on both sides at the time that they were both right. But hey! Alicia technically was. She knew when that reporter was up.
“I spent some time with Pluto and Davy too. Pluto wanted to play Monopoly. I beat the two of them though!”
It was fun, thinking of it. She did great for the most of it.Pluto and Davy did too, though they wound up declaring bankruptcy. She honestly thought that Davy would be the one beating the other two, not the other way around.
As if just saying his name would wake him up, Davy powered on. He took a step forward and blinked twice, his preprogrammed greetings of the morning slipping out before he could stop them. “Good mornin’.”
“It's night,” Alicia grinned.
She knew about the clock, she saw Dylan and Phillip check and make sure they work at least twice.
Davy knew very well from his external clock that it wasn't morning, but the grin on Alicia's face just made him squint his eyes at them.
“Hey bud.”
Davy switched his attention to Vinnie and Blank, greeting them and purposefully leaving Alicia out of them. “Hello, Blank. Vinnie. What're you two doing?”
Don't think Alicia didn't notice! She snickered a little before going back to her art, smiling a little.
“Oh I'm drawing with Alicia. Vinnie's just chatting is all,” Blank hummed.
“Ah. Vinnie,” Davy looked upright. “How was that book Dylan and I got you?”
“It was okay. Some of the dialogue felt strange but the characters were promising.” Vinnie started to ramble a little, some details being of interest to them.
"Mmhm. Maybe we should find more books from that author?" Davy thought aloud, his head tittering and tattering.
“Maybe. I think I'd be interested.”
“How was your day Davy? Or are you going to ignore me still?” Alicia replied, her attention towards her Scottish accented friend.
“Oh I didn't see you there! Hi Alicia!”
Alicia's snicker slipped out as she answered. “Hi Davy. How's your day? Are you going to answer?”
Davy shook his head, grinning. “I'm doing great! Nice to see you for the first time today. How was your day? Was it good?”
It was hard to keep a straight face at that point. Alicia bit her tongue for a moment before responding. “Mhm. It was fine. Some more kids than usual but it's fine.”
"Ah, children. There was a lot here,” Davy agreed. “I think some of them were drawing on Blank today.”
“You think?” Blank said in a deadpanned voice.
“They had markers didn't they?” and before Blank could say anything else to it Davy grabbed a paper from the pile, getting to doodling things himself. “Come on. We're drawing are we not?”
.
The four chatted for a bit, though Blank and Davy had a bit of banter here and there.
Eventually, Davy got bored with drawing and hopped off his chair. He went to Vinnie's room to grab a book and came back, going directly to his stage and sitting on his charger. Vinnie walked over to him to see what book he was reading, and wound up sitting on the edge of the stage speaking with Davy each time the cat looked up and commented on something.
Alicia and Blank stayed at the table for a bit longer. Flowers, M&M, Rabbit, bats and rats and cats and others were drawn by the two. They had fun, it was entertaining. Sometimes thoughts would pop up and they'd talk about that, before going in and out of silence while drawing. It was fun, drawing with Blank like Alicia used to.
Both were content, as were Vinnie and Davy.