...isn't gold

“don’t you S E E? this was never about the M O N E Y.” | america perez | daughter of miguel, tulio & chel | dependent | toonsvillehq |

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madsmilingvillain‌:

“Any of us, huh? Well we have not been here all that long either, at least not most. In fact, our appearances seem to be quite out of the blue,” she slid a pawn forward, though caring more about the girl’s response to this unexplained conundrum than the game, “But surely there have been rumours. Such a powerful article cannot have existed for as long as you claim and not sparked the imaginations.” 

“Well, you’re right about that. And I haven’t been here long enough to really hear much else. It all seems to be very hush hush.” She made sure to put on a little whisper at the end as she leaned forward, pushing her pawn again. Maybe hamming it up would make it seem more believable. Or, at least more creepy; tomato tomato.

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the-radical-hamato‌:

Artimesia sighed, she partially regretted speaking up since this woman just seemed bent on getting her drink. Arti looked at the ID then back to the barkeep, shrugging with her wings as she started to speak, “Look, dude, she seems legit. Besides if this is a town of cartoons how could you know if she was underage? Maybe that’s just how she’s drawn! But she also might turn this bar into splinters if she doesn’t get her way.”

She was surprised that the girl turned to her side so quickly, but she wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth. Instead, she simply turned to the bartender and cocked an eyebrow. He looked between the two for a moment, before seemingly sighing in defeat. When his back was turned to grab her a bottle, she did a little celebration dance that she hoped the girl didn’t notice, and then turned back to her once the transaction was over.

“Thank you so much. You have no idea how much hassle that man just put me through.”

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gonnarockyoursocksoff‌:

“…uh…”

Well, this was great. First day on some dumb new job, at some dumb store, selling some dumb stuf– Okay, no, the past’s soft drinks were actually, genuinely good, in large part because they weren’t Slurm. But, still. This sucked. He wanted to just be dragged into Robot Hell, or something, right now.

The worst part, of course, was having this chick blow up on him for doing this stupid job! Steve should’ve been soaring through the stars, romancing ladies, and getting into fights with alien-lizard-men right now – or at the least watching his old man on the news!

No, the worst part, was that this lady had already blown up on him before, back at the fair; his face had felt as if it were approaching an inferno the moment he spotted her walk in.

“…n-no, you… yeah, do look below twenty-one?” That’d get her to chill. Definitely. 

America, for a moment, just looked at him. “I’m sorry, do you have ears? I’ve already told you that I’m clearly older than that! Besides, need I remind you that, back where I’m from, I’m a princess? And what were you, again?”

She did recognize this kid. Back from the fair, she was pretty sure. They hadn’t spoken for that long, but he just had one of those faces, you know? She did feel a little bad for him, especially since she usually avoided making habits of targetting the same people more than once. But this guy? He just seemed so, well, so, easy. So maybe it was a blessing in disguse. Or it could be her worst nightmare. But she supposed that she’d find out soon enough.

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the-radical-hamato‌:

Artimesia was sitting next to the lady at the bar, not drinking obviously since she was underage, but it was more comfortable for her wings to sit on something with an open back. She startled a little when the other yelled, looking up at them, “Hey, lady, he’s just doin’ his job. You don’t have to get all worked up. I’m sure you can do this calmly, yeah?”

“If he was just doing his job,” America gritted her teeth, turning to face the girl. “Then he would let me have my drink.” She was sure that she meant no harm. After all, she was technically in the right, as was the bartender. But being ‘in the right’ didn’t get her wine any faster. Or easier, for that matter.

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tai-inks‌:

“Is…the face not a part of the body? Look, I get it, it’s cheap and quick and you can sell it for $5. It just hurts my soul, that’s all I’m saying,” he elaborates, though he doubts that makes him sound any less dramatic about it.

He takes the popcorn, dipping his fingers in a little too soon and retracting them quickly, hissing through his teeth, as it hadn’t yet cooled. He hands her a crumpled ten dollar bill he pulls from his back pocket, slightly stained with butter from the popcorn. “Not much security around here—it’s possible,” he adds with a shrug, going for a cooler piece of popcorn off the top and popping it in his mouth. “Heck, if I were you, I—” he stops himself, shaking his head. “Nevermind.”

“Technically, sure. But they’re different names, so they’re different things. It’s just how language works.” Well, alright, so she couldn’t say that for sure, but it was just the most logical answer. Why have two different names for the same thing? It just didn’t make any sense.

Noticing his hiss of pain as she punched the numbers into the cash register, she couldn’t help but briefly turn her attention. “Popcorn’s hot, genius.” Well, maybe that wasn’t so obvious to him. She had no idea how long he’d been here, or even where he came from originally. But he did seem to at least know what the stuff was, so neither of those seemed like valid excuses.

America held herself back from announcing her snide comment towards his remark. That lack of secuirty what she was counting on, after all. But she felt that she had to give some kind of answer. Just to keep up the facade, y’know? “Not like I keep count, either, so for all I know maybe it has.”

Finally, she was able to finish cashing up the simply popcorn request on the confusing mess of a cash register, and was about to announce the amount he owed when he caught her attention.  “If you were me you’d what?”

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madsmilingvillain‌:

Mimsy had been excited about the prospect of a cursed chessboard, but the whole ‘sleeping curse?’ 

“A load of yawns,” she replied, unimpressed, “I’m more interested in spectres and sorcery. Pray tell, who placed this spell?” Although mad, Mimsy was no fool. She recognized the ambiguity of the description of the curse, and it certainly caused to question it. But question it she did, and she was curious as to what the answers were. The way she saw it, if this girl was making it up, it would be interesting to see how she imagined the curse to be. And if she wasn’t, well, details on the curse would be entirely useful, not to mention fascinating.

“Interesting choice…” she murmured, nodding, “Then its your move.” 

America had to do her best to hold back a frown. Yawns? This was creative genius! “I have no idea. All I know is that this was here long before any of us.” By ‘us’ she was mainly referring to the current residents of Toonsville, but she supposed that leaving it open to a little ambiguity couldn’t hurt. Besides, if it turned out to be too much then she could always backtrack. She never specified, after all.

Having not really played chess in a while - she was always more of a dice girl herself; chess was much harder to cheat in -, she had to stare at the board for a few moments before moving a knight. “Done.”

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all-splitup‌:

Beck was still laughing right in the girl’s face, “Well then, Miss America, happy 60th birthday last weekend! In that case, you can have all the alcohol you want.”

America couldn’t help but scowl. She was only one year ‘under age’, how hard could it be to convince one guy? “Ha ha, very funny. Look, just let me buy some wine and then I’ll be on my merry way, alright?”

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tai-inks‌:

“Sure, if random swirls is all you expect. Real body art requires real skill, but I guess no one here even knows what that looks like.” One one hand, it makes his job easier—the limited amount of competent artists around means more business for him. Still, he worries that a lack of solid competition may decrease motivation to continuously improve.

“Hey, you said it, I didn’t,” he holds his hands up defensively. Taking the popcorn she’d given him, he reaches for his wallet with his free hand. ”You got change for a ten?”

“Well, yeah, but that has a different name, so.” America shrugged. She knew that she couldn’t exactly argue back; it’s not like she knew much about art other than it tended to be worth a lot. But as far as she could tell face painting - or ‘body paint’, as he seemed to insist on calling it - was fairly simple. It wasn’t like you could sell it or anything, after all.

“I never said you did, sweetheart.” She replied, as she scooped the hot popcorn into the container before handing it over to him. “We should do, unless someone stole it all in the last hour since someone came in.” That someone likely being her, but she was trying to test her new ground before actually 'borrowing’ anything.

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madsmilingvillain‌:

“Ooh, now that is far more interesting!” She declared happily, her glare dissipating into a grin as she followed the girl to the table and sat across from her, studying the box with interest. 

“Oh, do you mean its cursed?” She inquired in a voice hushed to further the excitement of the mystery, “A cursed chessboard, that could be the most exciting thing I’ve come across thus far in this town! Just how ancient are these ancients? Centuries? Eons? If I had that much time, I wouldn’t waste in on sleep!” The young witch shook her head in a disappointed fashion and reached for the box, “The victim chooses. White or black?” 

Clearly she didn’t understand sarcasm, but whatever. Besides, while there was some pleasure in seeing people getting angry, if she really was this dim-witted, then maybe she could have a little fun with it...

“Yes, it is! Had you not heard?” Her tone was perhaps a bit over-dramatic, and she further emphasised it with what she considered a tasteful gasp. “Oh, far more ancient than that. So ancient you could barely comprehend it. I know I can’t. But you see, that’s part of the curse. You can’t live for so long unless you get the demanded amount of sleep.” She deflated slightly, knowing that her lies hadn’t even slightly phased her from wanting to play the game. But at least it gave her time to play with the girl a little longer. “Hmmm, white.”

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sorta-sodalite‌:

Was Lauryn supposed to respect that this girl claimed to be a princess? The gem wasn’t so sure how such hierarchy worked, though she was fairly certain princesses still had to listen to law enforcement. She became a police officer to help people, not be sassed by some human. 

Lauryn let out a half-assed laugh, giving the girl benefit of the doubt that she was joking about think she got special treatment, “Right. Anyways, surely you have some kind of quick-fix kit around here? If your bosses won’t do it, we will. We just need a little electrical tape,“ Lauryn concluded, forgetting humans were much more vulnerable to electrocution.

Damn. Why did the whole princess thing never work on anyone? So far it was proving to be more of an upkeep than it was worth. “Uh, no. I am not touching those, sparky death traps. One of the customers offered to do it the other day and the results were not pretty.” She wasn’t entirely sure that he’d known what he was doing either, but that didn’t help either of their cases.

“Besides, you’re like, the law, right? Can’t you do that kind of thing on your own?” Even if she couldn’t, then America always make the excuse that nobody else was on shift. So technically she wasn’t suppose to leave her station. Not that she strictly followed that rule, but here it just so happened to work in her favour.

[cllthctglittcrs]

“What do you mean it’s fake? This is a government sanctioned ID! Yeah, you can ask the mayor yourself! Besides, are you saying that this face looks a day below 21?”

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madsmilingvillain‌:

Normally, Mimsy would have argued her point until she was blue in the face, regardless of whether it was correct or not, but on this rare occasion she was too excited at the possibility of finally having an opponent. Books were wonderful distractions, but didn’t provide the rush of adrenaline that competition did, at least not to the young witch, who, though she likely needed a relaxant than a stimulant, loved the thrill. 

When they reached the top, Mimsy eagerly approached the shelf of games, only to be horrified by what she saw; an array of cartoon pictures and bright colours. Candyland, Chutes and Ladders, and Monopoly practically glared at her, so she did the only sensible thing and glared back, muttering, “This is not what I wanted in the slightest. This is disgusting.” 

Clearly forcing a smile, America reached all the way to the back of the shelf and was able to pull out a small, somewhat-dusty, fold-up chess kit. “Is this what you wanted?”

She still disagreed that this was better than any of the other ‘disgusting’ board games they had to offer - all of which seemed far more entertaining to her from the boxes alone, but whatever. It was either she played what this weirdo wanted to play or went back to work, and she still firmly believed this to be the preferable option. So, with the wooden box now in hand, she gave the girl a final look before making her way over to the nearest table. “For the record, you should consider yourself lucky. Only the town ancients ever really touch this anymore, and it seems to already be past their bedtime.”

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sorta-sodalite‌:

Lauryn raised a brow, unsure if she should confront the girl about her disrespectful tone to a police officer. But who cared? This dinky little human place didn’t need her to take more issues with it, “I’m telling you you having building and health code violations everywhere, miss. Do you have your boss’ contact information?” Lauryn realized as the sentence came out of her mouth that this was probably pointless. The government practically set this place up just to abandon it. She took a moment to sigh and look around, ‘You’ve kinda been set up to fail, haven’t you?”

“And I’m telling you that I couldn’t care less.” Seeing that she had a chance to have a little fun here, America decided to take a risk and see how far she could push this. “I might. But what’s it worth to you.” She made a point of leaning against the desk, to get in the officer’s face as much as she could manage. Sure, this might get her in trouble, but she knew that she could stop whenever she wanted to. Besides, she’d had more than enough experience with the law back at home. How different could it be here?

“Listen, honey, I’m going to tell you what I told those bozo’s we call a government when I arrived. Where I’m from, I’m a princess,” not technically true, but it wasn’t like she had any way of knowing that. Or that they did, for that matter. “I shouldn’t have to work anyway. Especially not in a dump like this.”

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tai-inks‌:

“Wouldn’t be surprised. They’re pretty bad at running a community event. Did you see the face painter they hired? Total amateur.” He scoffs, arms crossed—very personally offended. How could they not have thought to hire him?

Tai leans over to the side to look past her, spotting the machine that was, very clearly, signed. Though he’s never been the type to admit it when he’s had a lapse of any kind, so instead:

“Ah. Your head was blocking the way. Of course I couldn’t see it.”

“Aren’t most face painters amateurs? It isn’t exactly hard to paint random swirls on people’s faces.” Plus people tended to be either too hyped on on alcohol or sugar to care what it looked like, depending on the age range.

“Is it really that big? Damn, guess I should have listened to mum after all.” America replied, as she reached down to pull out the large popcorn, holder, thingy. There were options, of course, but this guy seemed about as familiar with this place as she was when she first arrived, so she doubted that he’d notice. And besides, the more money she made, the more money she got paid.

[cllthctglittcrs]

madsmilingvillain‌:

Mimsy scowled. She did not like being told she wasn’t good at something. Insults  didn’t come easily to her, probably because most of the time she just said whatever came to her head, “ Those weren’t insults,” she insisted, “ They were truthful statements. I don’t need a personal critic.” 

Despite her annoyance, Mimsy was glad that this young woman had been paired with her. It would make for some interesting discussions, and games. At least there were board games. She could live with chess and checkers. Whoever invented a place where you could go and sit down with someone who was willing and ready to play with you was a genius. Mimsy hoped to get a job here someday, sitting around until someone came and then competing with them. That was her idea of a dream job. 

Halfway up the stairs, she turned to see the other remaining behind the counter, “Well? What are you waiting for? Come on!” 

“Yes, truthful statements that besmirch the reputation of the establishments. Which is just a long, complicated way of saying insults.” America didn’t know if this girl had been dropped on her head as a kid or what, but that didn’t seem like a difficult concept to grasp. After all, the best insults were soaked in truth. Otherwise they weren’t really insults, just slander.

A sense of relief flowed over her when the girl left without much more fuss, though. At least, until she turned and, asked her to follow? “Uhh, that’s not-” Although, thinking about it, nobody else had come in for a while. And even if they did, well, this just seemed more fun. “Eh, fuck it.” She shrugged, plopping the ‘On Break’ sign onto the desk before leaping over it to follow the girl upstairs.

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sorta-sodalite‌:

“In Beach City, if the Funland isn’t doing business during the day, it’ll close…” The police officer certainly wasn’t giving permission for the girl to slack off at work, but Lauryn was certainly still confused on how thing ran here. Plus, with no boss around beside the Lost Boys, she didn’t see what kept the girl at work. What sort of work force or ethics laws did Toonsville have in place? “I’m sorry, my name is Officer Lazuli. I’m concerned over the general safety of the establishment, but I don’t know who the boss is here. You’ve got exposed wires everything, is there someone in charge of fixing that?”

The tension that spread through her at the mere mention of law enforcement seemed like a gut reaction at this point, but she hadn’t personally actually broken the law here, had she? All she’d done was taken a shitty, minimum wage job to pay the bills. It wasn’t like she was the manager or anything. So, she shouldn’t have anything to worry about.

...Right?

“Well this isn’t Beach City, sweetheart.” She replied, in a less than smooth attempt at a recovery. “And I’m not in charge, if that’s what you’re asking. I’m just here to make them money. Although, it’s unclear if my boss is the one who interviewed me but clearly couldn’t care less, or the one who pays me garbage. Feel free to have at both, though. It’s no skin off my back.”

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tai-inks‌:

The lack of enthusiasm in the stranger’s voice, despite their words, is apparent. As much as Tai wants to comment on it, he isn’t quite in the mood to get chewed out by yet another kid. Three times seemed enough for one day.

“What does poppin’ even mean? I keep hearing it, and I always just assume it’s related it’s popcorn,” Tai asks, discarding his empty soda can into the nearest trash bin. “Speaking of…know where I can get some popcorn?”

Well that question certainly came out of nowhere. “No clue. Nobody’s ever bothered to explain it to me either.” She shrugged. “It has to be good if it’s in the slogan, though. Unless they’re just really bad at writing slogans.”

This guy was, a lot older than their usual customers. Or younger, depending on which floor they were after. But she’d bite. “The, popcorn machine?” She replied, pointing to the clearly labelled popcorn machine behind her.