Chapter 144 - Jo’s Here

Poor Mikah has staggered a few steps away from the group, leaning against the wall next to the elevators with one hand. His other hand is resting on his knee, and he is doubled over in hysterical, full-body-trembling laughter. It’s so intense that his eyes are watering, and he’s starting to have difficulty breathing. As funny as everything said out loud was, he is definitely privy to even more additional amusements.

Though, to be fair, everyone else’s hysterics aren’t all that far behind his, in regards to their intensity. That is, apart from Miss Chievous, who is, somehow, still staring at Mark with a serious expression.

The rich baritone of Mark’s laughter stands out from amongst the crowd. Upon Mark noticing how earnestly Miss Chievous is watching him, he lifts up the slit of his dress by a short distance with one hooked finger, revealing a peek of black silk just above his hip.

While he had already been laughing too hard to answer with words, when she answers with a slightly disappointed “Oh” he starts laughing even harder.

After snorting, Lucas manages to control his breathing just barely enough to scold Mark.

“Don’t encourage her by actually showing her! Who knows what she’ll think up to ask next!?” After barely managing to get that out coherently, Lucas resumes his laughter as well.

The fact that his statement made Miss Calculated and Miss Masher laugh even harder should be sufficient to prove the accuracy of his theory.

Oh, it’s apparently Jonathan’s turn to snort now, too. And, he’s even laughing so hard that he doesn’t have the energy left to be embarrassed about it.

After Mark manages to compose himself to some extent, he starts fanning his face with one hand to help dry any potential tears that may have escaped. With a large grin, he finally turns his attention downward, smiling at the patiently waiting Willy.

“Goodness, your newest member of the family is so well behaved. And what do you have there..? Wait, is that… OH MY GOODNESS! LET ME SEE THOSE!” Upon Mark’s recognition of just what the chew toy likenesses are, he crouches down to reach out and grab them with both hands, delightedly laughing throughout the process.

On the one hand, an alarming amount of smooth, hairless man-leg is exposed in the process. But, on the other hand, there’s no way in hell he’d have managed to get that low to the ground in those heels without the flexibility granted by the massive slit.

‘Dude! No thanks! ...Is this how chicks feel when they see half-naked women all over the place in ads and shit?’

Willy offers up the three faux villains without any resistance, his tail wagging vigorously ever since Mark’s acknowledgment of his presence. Once the toys have been surrendered, Willy gives a happy bark in support of Mark’s request.

“They’re so terrible, I love it! I’m still gonna sue for every cent I can get for my likeness being used like this, but, my goodness! Oh, oh, Daniel is gonna love these. We need to design some actual decent ones! Haha, a whole line of mini-clothes for them, too!” With the legally distinct (but not quite) dolls in hand, Mark stands back up as he looks them over.

‘...Is there even a court that could issue a ruling for unauthorized use of someone’s appearance, celebrity or not? How’s suing even work anymore?’

Briefly carrying all three chew toys in his left hand, Mark blindly holds his right hand out in Mikah’s direction. Shortly after, Mikah pulls out a phone from one of his pockets and hands it over to him wordlessly, though he is still grinning and fighting back laughter.

Mark deftly unlocks the phone with his thumb and starts snapping pictures of the dolls at various angles, chuckling to himself the whole time.

Something about this whole process has driven home to Miss Masher that he’s just another dork like the rest of them, helping her finish warming up and stop fretting over her perceived social status differences.

“Oh, so that’s why Willy was carryin’ ‘em around all day, you were lookin’ forward to showin’ ‘em off! Wait… Then…” While Miss Masher amusedly declares her understanding, she gains a look of realization while looking at the two other dolls besides mini Mind Flare. She then looks over at Lucas briefly, then turns her gaze up at the decreasing floor numbers being listed over the other elevator.

Mark briefly turns his attention over to glance at Mikah before going back to his own phone, continuing the petite plaything photoshoot.

Mikah pulls out a second phone, presumably his own this time, unlocking it and quickly heading into his contacts, and beginning a phone call as he takes a few steps away. After a few second’s delay, he speaks up.

“Good afternoon. Yeah, we figured you were ignoring his texts. Lucas showed up with some friends, you should come over and see something they brought with them. Yeah, they have the dog you heard about with them too. See you soon.” Shortly after Mikah finished his greeting, Mark gains an amused wry smile, clearly unsurprised with the confirmation.

Miss Calculated has a thoughtful expression until Mikah mentions Willy, at which point she then turns around to look out the large floor-to-ceiling windows of the front of the store, in the direction of Faunahorde.

Maintaining her vigilance, it isn’t long before she’s rewarded with the sight of a man’s figure heading over to the front door of Faunahorde, with something small and colorful on top of his head.

Much closer to their gathered group, Miss Masher’s own vigilance notes the elevator count reaching ‘1’. After a short delay, the doors slide open, and Josephine steps out.

While her attire is hardly anywhere near as flashy as Mark’s, there is a bit of a sense of ‘what a coincidence’ that she’s similarly dressed in all blue. She has on an unornamented pale blue blouse with short sleeves and a collar, paired with a dark blue pencil skirt nearly to her knees, and has on far tamer pale blue kitten-heeled pumps.

When Josephine notices the congregation nearby, she gains a slightly amused, but unsurprised, smile.

Walking over to join them, she smiles at the guests, but only manages a “Good afternoon everyone” before Mark excitedly holds her lookalike in front of her.

“Fina! Fina! Look! They’re horrendous, we absolutely need to make good ones!” While Mark happily waves the doll around before her, she can’t help but took at it, breaking out with laughter upon recognition.

‘...Fina? Oh, instead of Jo or Josie. Not like Phine sounds all that great on its own… That’s kinda cute, actually?’

Miss Masher and Miss Chievous are both looking at each other, both with new looks of surprise. They collectively turn their attention over to Miss Calculated, who also has a touch of surprise writ upon her face as well.

‘..? Oh, the fact that they’re a thing isn’t common knowledge, I guess?’

Mikah chuckles quietly, turning his attention over to look at Lucas.

“Exactly.” When Mikah gives Lucas this confirmation, all three sisters, as well as Jonathan, turn to look at Mikah, all wondering if they were the ones to whom he was responding to.

Technically, it was an answer for more than just one of them, even though Lucas is who he ultimately decided to turn and face.

Lucas, however, immediately stops paying any attention to the gathered throng, turning around in pursuit of the source of the merry birdsong that just came into his hearing range from the wide-open double-doors of the storefront.

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Lucas total kills: 7

Lucas total deaths: 11

Lucas total assists: 1

Lucas current GDV: 16.88 (+.01 net change)

Lucas's fame level: 5.0* (Already beginning to receive authentic global attention. His local levels are effectively maxed.)

Lucas's hero suspicion level: 2.5* (More than just passing suspicion for many paranoid individuals, numerous people have realized he's an impulsive idiot.)

Jonathan total kills: 7

Jonathan total deaths: 2

Jonathan current GDV: 5.77

Jonathan's fame level: 2.5* (What fame he does have is predominantly local.)

Jonathan's hero suspicion level: 3.0* (More than just overly-paranoid people are suspicious at this point.)

Willy's fame level: 1.5* (Anonymous meme fame, local fame primarily as 'Xenoclast's dog', but some strangers know him as William/Willy now.)

Supervillain social circle size: 14 (Sheesh Ji Soo, hurry up already.)

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Little character theater:

Jonathan, noticing Lucas’s movements and similarly turning around to look, and then chuckling upon seeing Dan with Sylph: Do we need to get a bird too?

Willy, quite satisfied with Mark and Josephine’s reactions to their deformed diminutive forms, his tail still wagging energetically: Bark!

Lucas, executing a great deal of self-restraint by not just running over to greet his glorious leader: Syyyllllppphhh!!!

427 is busy contemplating using his deafen feature as well, surely 011 will tell him if anything important happens? There’s no need to suffer through Lucas being, well, Lucas, right?

Author, chuckling and shaking their head with their arms crossed: Now now 427, at least he didn’t pterodactyl screech this time.

Mr.. Quacks, mildly annoyed by all the fussing-over attention that the lowly chew toys are receiving, when clearly he is far more deserving of all this recognition: Quack.