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While Ally might be interested in helping these sickly rabbits, she's also very interested in not getting sick herself. Nevertheless, she finds herself on the moon venture anyway--if only because she wants to check this place out. It's probably fine if she sticks only to the non-quarantined areas, right?
So the Marketplace it is.
She's browsing the wares on display, leaning close and sniffing at the moon rocks and other weird things for barter--when she smells a familiar person nearby...
This is stupid. This is a terrible idea. Leaving her alone? Now? With Justin to boot? Oh hell what is he doing.
Nearly vibrating with nerves in the middle of some fever-dream moon-rabbit marketplace scouting out for gifts. He's jumpy, and there's a nervous tap to his fingers whenever he's close enough to anything else. He glances off, repeatedly in the direction he left Mom and gets disproportionately frustrated with the rabbits.
He doesn't even notice her, not at first. Not until she's close enough he hears her sniffling and his eyes go sharp on her, far less human in the moment.
The sharpness of the look he gives her doesn't seem to bother her much, being significantly sharp and inhuman herself. It certainly doesn't get her to buzz off and mind her own business, so she hopes that's not what the look is for.
"They're a lot more negotiable if you have something to barter with," she informs him, gesturing vaguely to the little rabbit he's currently accosting. He seems skittish from what she can tell, like there's something that's got him spooked, and she's not keen on just leaving him to wander the stalls like that.
His eyes narrow just a little, on her approach. He would expect his very presence would get people to buzz off and mind their own business but it seems this place is intent on repeatedly proving that's not the case.
He looks from her, back to the rabbit, then pushes back from the table, turning like he doesn't really care whatever it is he was bartering for. "Whatever. I could probably find something better than this anyway." He glances. "What are you doing here?"
"Same thing everyone else is doing here." She gestures around to the market, though there doesn't seem to be any specific people nearby. "Investigating. Browsing the wares until we're allowed to poke our noses into these rabbits' collective businesses."
He acts like he doesn't care about the wares, though the poor hassled rabbit looks like he might be better off for not having to haggle with this guy. "Are you looking for something in particular?"
He frowns. It's a fair enough reason that he can't really say anything on the matter, like telling her to screw off. She doesn't want anything from him. They just happen to be in the same place.
Still, he doesn't look happy about the question.
"Yes. No. I don't know." He grumbles, "A gift, I guess..."
He doesn't sound superbly confident in this either.
"A gift. You guess?" She repeats his uncertainty back to him. How do you not know if you're looking for a gift or not? Maybe if you're unsure about whether the gift would be appreciated or not. She bites down on any urge to tease him and instead tries for the more straight forward approach.
He doesn't repeat himself. He just scowls further, waiting for mockery or whatever might be on her mind. That she doesn't do that gives her that little bit of leeway's worth of getting a response from him.
She almost decides to let that one go, but her curiosity wins out in the end. She can't not ask when he's giving such a reluctantly awkward answer.
"...How can someone 'sort of' be your mother? Isn't that usually pretty straight forward with human--like creatures?" She catches herself at the end, tacking on a broader scope than just the 'humans' she was going to reference.
He's looking away as she starts, not really wanting to detail this today, only to glance back as she catches herself. He could almost laugh at that, in another time. Unfortunately, he's still got to deal with all this.
"I don't have a very straight forward existence," He says. "She is my Mom, but I'm not her Son. That's how it's 'sort of'."
She really tries for a moment to figure that one out. She's his mom, but he's not her son. How does that work? She might have guessed that maybe it had something to do with strange genetics--or maybe a cultural thing, like with her society? But neither of those make sense, and moreover, he admits to his existence being unusual.
"...I can't say I understand, but--it's whatever. Probably not any weirder than the familial units I'm used to." And she doesn't need to understand in order to offer her assistance. "Do you want some help? Figuring out a maybe gift for your sort of mom?"
There's a twinge of curiosity. He almost asks. But no, he doesn't want to know about a bunch of other people's family situations. That will do nothing for him.
The offer on the other hand gets an immediate reaction. "No." He scoffs. "I..." He looks back to the table and all it's offerings that mean nothing to him. "I can do this myself."
His words do not inspire confidence, but at the same time, she can't fault him for wanting the gift to be something personal. This is the first person that she's heard him talk about with any sort of interest, so it must be pretty important.
"Here..." She reaches into a pocket, withdrawing a few hemp bracelets with colorful shells on them. She pulls one apart from the others and offers it out to him. "If you find something you want to get, barter with this. It'll give you an edge. They love stuff from the village, so don't let them haggle you down."
He looks perplexed at the bracelet, which almost makes him kinda cute, if she didn't know any better. It's a shame his attitude ruins that most of the time.
"Yeah? I make them. Find the shells on the beach, make the cord myself. I use them to barter sometimes, so it doesn't hurt to keep a few on hand."
Oh, right, this place has no currency. Never really needing to buy anything, he hasn't had much cause to remember that.
He runs his thumb over the shell, thinking. Then asks, "What kind of things do you barter them for?" He really doesn't have anything, but the more he thinks about it, the more he thinks throwing a shell bracelet in with whatever he finds might have some worth to Mom.
She shrugs, taking note of the way he seems to be thinking about something. She half wonders if she should fish out more of them.
"Whatever I happen to need. Food, knick-knacks... It's kinda hit or miss since they don't have any practical use. They're just pretty. But sometimes people like things that don't have any practicality. Not everything we do here has to be for survival."
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