Retail Therapy

Alex sat at the Starbugs counter, nursing a strong cup of coffee which had some fancy name he couldn't remember.
Oh Plisk.

A tired looking Jade came and ordered a Caramel Macchiato, momentarily posting Alex's mind back off to a happier day. His lip twitched.

"Hey" he croaked, offering a half-smile.
"Hi." She smiled back. He couldn't tell what it meant. With all the crazy adventure, certain other issues had been pushed to the side. They were too sad about the death of the well-loved elder for much else to currently register on the issues scale

Alex cleared his throat. "I miss him."
The small doctor swallowed and nodded. "Me too."
They exchanged a deeply sad glance, their own private memories of Plisken reeling over their mental projectors.

"I'm sorry."
"It's not your fault..."
He winced. "Actually, I think it might be, but I don't mean about that-"
She made a little rewinding gesture. "What do you mean you 'think it might be'?"
"I couldn't save him."
"Ah." She shook her head. "It's not your fault" she said again, emphasising not.
"I wish there was something we could do..."
"... Yeah."

Alex ran a hand through his hair. "D'you think Jaxx'll be okay?"
The doc puffed, doctorly concern fatiguing her big style. "We'll see."

The conversation petered out, and they sipped their coffees, glaring into nothingness in the manner of the very tired.

Eventually Alex got up from his stool and stretched.
"What were you going to say?" Jade asked, both hands around her coffee, reminding Alex of a fieldmouse with an acorn.
He gave her a tight-lipped smile. It probably wasn't the time or the place. "We'll talk soon, yeh?"

Should I give her a kiss on the head? I don't know what to do.

Apparently some of the angel's instincts had yet to sink, because he ignored his awkwardness, squeezed her shoulder and gave her a peck on the bonce.

"Take care" she said, kindly not mentioning the whisky cologne.
"You too." He gave a sombre little wink and strode off down the promenade, lighting a cigarette.

----

After buying some new socks from one of the shops (the hamsters in the store had finally worked out the shape of human feet), he was shocked to see Artemis walking past. It wasn't really the fact that Artemis was walking past that surprised him, so much as the fact the lofty scientist was wheeling what looked like a dead body in a wheelbarrow.

"The f*ck?"
He walked out the shop and fell into stride with the scientist. "You uh, you need a hand with that?"
"Oh, no, I'm fine thank you Alex."
Alex? He must be in deeper shock than I thought.
"Got er, got a friend with you?"
"What?" Artie snapped. He seemed like he was distracted and trying to concentrate.
"I was just wondering a few things."
"Yes?"
"One, why you're taking a dead body for a walk, two whose body it is, and three, where the hell you got a wheelbarrow from."

Artemis stopped wheeling his fare and faced Alex, the scientist's greater height of 6'7 meaning he was looking down into the other man's eyes.
"Lanky Locks..." he began "did you not hear the commotion last night?"

Alex cleared his throat. "I er, no. I was..." Passed out in the officer's club after toasting Plisken with his favourite whisky. "... In a very deep sleep."
"Well we had an intruder."

Alex blinked. "What?"
"This guy."
Solvay's brain wasn't firing on all cylinders. He rubbed his face and thought about it. "Why's he under a blanket?"
"Oh well, that's easily explainable."
"Yes?"
"I didn't want to scare the rodents."
Alex frowned, not at all sure he was keeping up. "You didn't have to come through the promenade..."
"I needed to pick up some WD40 for the missus."
"... Right." He attempted to shake some fug from his mind. "So who the hell is this, and how did he get here?"

Artie's previously distracted face lit up. "Now that, Mr Solvay, is just what I intend to find out!"
A worrying thought struck the exhausted engineer. "Does Jay know he's here?"
"Hmm?"
"I said does Jay know he's-"

But Artemis wasn't listening. He was trundling on again.
Alex stood and stared for a moment before jogging to catch back up.

"Artie."
"Hmm?"
"ARTIE!?"
Artie sighed, stopped again, dropped the wheelbarrow's handles, and threw his hands up, irritated to have his journey and musings interrupted yet again. "WHAT?"

"Why's he unconscious?"

---
---

<Tag Everyone.
By the way I realised something funny. In my AR post, I meant that The Kraken came out of the fissure, followed Al and Artie back to the room, and in the room, the reappeared Robotnik on his throne rose up as a crown on top of Cthulu's head. And that the Kraken was still there as well and was Cthulu's pet.
(So there was gigantic scary virus cthulu wearing a robotnik crown on one side, and the Kraken approaching from the other. But I don't think I made that very clear as there was only mention of the Kraken in Art post. D'oh sorry!
It doesn't matter though, we can just assume what wiped the Kraken out also wiped out Cthulu / They were part of the same gigantic gelatinous entity linked under the ground or something.>