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winwin17 · 1 year ago

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Mogtober 2023: Day #8

(late again, but I like this one and have an idea for it)

Prompt: A Nevermoorian Shop

"Wait! Hold on! I need to get one more thing!"

Morrigan thought this was probably the third time Hawthorne had said this by now, but she was so amused by him that she didn't complain.

The two of them, along with Cadence, had planned a sleepover at the Deucalion one autumn weekend, and presently the trio was down at a quaint little corner shop, loading up on candy and snacks for their event.

The particular shop they were in was full of all manner of corner-shop type things, and coupled with its warm, glowing ambience and the way the interior was decked out to look like the inside of a fairy's forest home, it felt nothing like any old convenience store, which made it a popular stop among kids and teens.

Morrigan and Cadence had already made their purchases, but Hawthorne kept getting distracted by things he found exciting. His arms were already loaded with sour gummy dragons, glow in the dark slime putty, pickle flavored soda (for "Truth or Drink"), and one or two other snack items.

"Okay, but make it quick," Cadence sighed, plopping down on a little mushroom shaped cushion near the door.

"What, you don't like this shop?" Hawthorne asked.

"Yeah, I like it. I'm just impatient to watch you lose miserably to me in Scrabble," she answered, tapping her fingers on the small wooden box that held her new game. It was her first very own personal Scrabble set, but she was already quite good at the game. She was certain she was way better than Hawthorne bragged about being, but she wanted to prove it.

"Ok, I'm hurrying, I'm hurrying!" Hawthorne said. "But I'm not convinced you're gonna beat me."

While he made his purchase, Morrigan and Cadence busied themselves talking over what they planned on doing when they got back to the Deucalion. Soon enough, Hawthorne came waltzing over carrying his goods, and something else unexpected.

"Look what I got!" he sang excitedly, holding up his treasures, which turned out to be three helium balloons on long strings wrapped securely around his hand.

"Balloons?" Morrigan said quizzically.

"One for each of us," Hawthorne beamed, unraveling the strings to hand them out.

"Really?" Morrigan's eyes went wide. Suddenly it felt super special somehow. No one had ever given her any kind of balloon in her life, even though she could remember finding them fascinating when she was little and had always known in the back of her head that it was something every kid got at some point.

Hawthorne didn't reply, just handed hers to her. It was stylized as a black cat face with an adorable pink nose, and just the one Morrigan would have picked for herself, in remembrance of the black kitchen cat she had liked back at Crow Manor.

Naturally, Hawthorne's balloon was a dragon, all shiny with blue and teal and purple scales. Cadence's was colorful, too, but it wasn't shaped like anything interesting, just a regular round shaped balloon, and on each side was printed the words. . . .

" 'Im sorry'? " Cadence demanded. "Hawthorne, why is mine an 'I'm Sorry' balloon?"

"I thought it was fitting," he shrugged. "Because I'm sorry I have to put up with you, and I'm sorry you're gonna lose at Scrabble later!"

"You turd," Cadence mumbled.

Morrigan had been speechless so far, but now she found her voice.

"I've never actually been given a balloon. Thanks, Hawthorne."

"Yeah, well, don't get too attached to it," he advised.

"Why not? Don't they last a while?

Hawthorne chuckled knowingly as he pushed open the door to exit the shop.

"Helium balloons never last long around me."

"Why not?"

"Ohhhh!" Cadence suddenly had a realization. "I know why."

"Why?" Morrigan demanded. "What is it? What's the deal with helium balloons?"

"You'll find out," Hawthorne said, grinning. "Come on, let's go."

No matter how much Morrigan pressed, she could not get Hawthorne or Cadence to tell her anything about why helium balloons were so significant the whole walk back. Hawthorne kept saying she'd find out "when the time was right." Cadence wouldn't offer any information, other than, "Don't let him fool you. It's really stupid."

When they got back to the Deucalion, they all ate some supper, and then their evening of activities officially began. They had discovered another special new room in the Deucalion, which was really not much more than a closet, but inside there was a rope ladder, and when they climbed up it, they arrived in a big, wonderful room on the very top floor that had arranged itself into the perfect sleepover room, complete with a glass domed ceiling that looked up at the stars. This is where they dumped most of their snacks and other goods, but Cadence demanded her Scrabble battle against Hawthorne be held in the Smoking Parlour.

"But why not up here?" he protested.

Cadence only said, "My game, my challenge, so I get to choose the setting."

The game actually got quite intense for a tabletop game, and Morrigan found herself on the edge of her seat watching them (she could play in the next round, but this was a long-awaited battle just for Hawthorne and Cadence.) It was quite a close game, in fact, but in the end, Cadence did win, and Hawthorne let out such a loud, dramatic wail that Jupiter had to come in and check that everything was okay.

"He's fine. He just lost a game," Morrigan explained.

Jupiter tried rather unsuccessfully to hide a smirk, and told Hawthorne he'd rival Frank for dramatics.

After more Scrabble, Hawthorne's infamous Truth or Drink, and an almost illegal consumption of snacks and candy, the mood was quite hilarious.

Then Hawthorne decided it was time for the helium balloons.

Morrigan watched in horror as he used a pocket knife to make a small slice in his beautiful dragon balloon. The next thing he did was even more ridiculous. Before too much air escaped the balloon, he brought it up to his face and inhaled deeply from the spot where he'd sliced it.

The next thing Morrigan knew, Hawthorne was talking, jabbering about something in between giggles, but the voice that was coming from him was NOT Hawthorne. Instead, it sounded like he'd been hijacked by a giddy chipmunk. Even though she was bewildered, she couldn't help letting out a laugh.

"What did you do?" she asked.

So once his voice went back to normal after a few seconds, Hawthorne introduced Morrigan to the hilarity of inhaling helium. She was hesitant to slice her pretty cat balloon, but Cadence said, "Just use mine. It's stupid anyway."

Morrigan was blown away in disbelief when her own voice surprisingly shot up several octaves. The biggest surprise was how it was totally out of her control. It made her feel giddy and lightheaded, and when she laughed at herself it sounded even more ridiculous than her talking. Hawthorne was practically in tears with laughter at her by the time it wore off a couple moments later.

"Ahaha, it's so awesome! Your voice is so high, you could sing opera with Dame Chanda!" He guffawed and wiped his eyes. Morrigan laughed, too, especially when Hawthorne breathed in more helium and started singing some musical scales just like the ones Dame Chanda sang when she was practicing. Of course, Morrigan wanted to try it again, too. Pretty soon, even Cadence was reluctantly laughing, although she still refused to do it herself.

Amid the ruckus, the door popped open and a familiar black eye patch appeared just as Morrigan and Hawthorne were collapsing in squeaky giggles after attempting to sing a duet.

"What in the Seven Pockets is all this commotion?" Jack demanded, scowling.

"He-he-hELIUM!!" Hawthorne managed to say. Morrigan produced the crumpled up remains of the dragon balloon to show.

"Inhaling helium?!" Jack said with horror. "Don't you know that's ridiculously bad for you? It deprives your brain of oxygen. You could pass out from that!"

"You don't have to mansplain it to them," Cadence said. "I don't think they care what it does at this point."

"It's such fun, though!" Hawthorne insisted. "You should try it."

"Absolutely not." Jack folded his arms defiantly.

But if there had been commotion before Jack came in, the next few minutes saw even more of it as somehow Hawthorne, Morrigan, and even Cadence managed to team up against Jack, tackle him into a corner, and shove the "I'm sorry" balloon over his face just enough that he was forced to breathe in some of the helium.

"Stop it, you idiots!" Jack roared - or tried to - but of course, his voice came out all high-pitched and clown-like, taking away all the seriousness and rage from his command. It was too funny, and everyone practically fell over each other laughing.

At that moment, Jupiter came onto the scene once again. When he heard what had transpired, he actually scolded them, and told them they should never, ever force someone do anything against their will, and made them all apologize to Jack. Their mood had toned down by the end, and they did truly feel bad that they hadn't used their brains. (When Morrigan expressed this, Jack just said, "Yeah, I told you it would mess with your brains.") Then Jupiter told them no more helium balloons for the night, which was mostly irrelevant at that point because Hawthorne's and Cadence's were all depleted of air anyway. But Morrigan's black cat was still fully intact, and she begged Jupiter to let her keep it if she wouldn't cut it open.

"Promise?" he said.

She reached out and hooked her little finger through his.

"Promise."

His eyes softened, and he agreed to let her keep it.

After he left and Jack had also stomped moodily out of the room, the three looked at each other in silence, the mood significantly dampened. Then Hawthorne said, "Hey, I know what we can do!"

Thus commenced a search for his glow in the dark slime putty, a short hunt to turn up some old pairs of glasses from the theatre's costume room, and some white rain ponchos that were lying around. The three traipsed back up to the sleepover room, which was quite dark with the lights turned out, making it perfect for the next part of Hawthorne's plan.

He told the girls to wait for him, but they had to keep the lights off, and he'd be back in a minute. In the dark, Morrigan began to think about the spooky stories she would tell later, and got so deep in thought that she forgot all about Hawthorne, and almost jumped out of her skin when the door busted open and suddenly a strange ghostlike creature appeared with glowing green eyes and a weird rustling sound about it.

Morrigan very nearly screamed out loud, and she and Cadence instinctively grabbed each other's arms in the dark until a split second later they realized the ghostly apparition was just Hawthorne, of course. He glided toward them wailing frighteningly, but they'd already put the pieces together.

"You goon!" Morrigan cried, lunging at him and pulling on the white rain poncho that was creating his ghostly appearance and producing that rustling sound.

Hawthorne laughed, and then they all wanted to take turns trying their ghost impressions. Just as Hawthorne had done, they stuck the green glow in the dark slime putty to the insides of the glasses lenses, put the glasses on their faces, and then adorned themselves in white rain ponchos with the hoods over their heads. In the darkness, they truly looked strange and scary. Morrigan decided to work the costume into her spooky story, which turned out almost as disconcerting as the Hall of Shadows experience. Hawthorne applauded her and praised her for being truly creepy.

By the time they all fell asleep that night, they each separately determined to themselves that it had been a splendid time.

#okay so i deviated from the prompt whatever #also this turned out longer than i exatly anticipated #ALSO this isnt necessarily me advocating for inhaling helium lol #although i will admit i have done it #nevermoor #mogtober #mogtober2023 #morrigan crow #hawthorne swift #cadence blackburn #jack korrapati #jupiter north #nevermoor characters #nevermoor fanfiction #nevermoor fanfic

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