Dual Troubles

[Matsi]

"Mordekai, Where should these... Roundish... Spherical...Things... go?" he asked as he picked up, well, roundish objects. His blue-green eyes inspected the shiny glass as he listened to his companion come around from the other room.
"That's a lamp globe, you idiot. It goes on what ever lamp doesn't already have a globe on it," Mordekai hissed. He was in a slight panic. It was his job to set up for this talent event that was put on by his father's bussiness, and his companion wasn't being much help at all.

Mordekai, who was often just called Kai, was the slightly older of the two. At the age of twenty-two, he beat Felix by just a few weeks in age, though, that was about all he had going for himself. He was not very impressive mentally or physically. He stood only 5'6'' tall, shorter than most of the people in his family and the men in his community, and he was a bit on the thicker side. Not fat, no. He had no fat on him. His bone structure just gave him slightly larger shoulders, a square jaw and large hands. So, he was thick.
His skin tone, which he recived from his mother's side of the family, was soft and creamy, like fresh milk hinted with some coffee, but not too much. His hair was, typically, a curly mess that hung to his jaw line. The golden mop of hair was rarely touched, except for an occasional "finger brushing".

Felix wasn't much different from Kai. In fact, they were, in one way or another, distant cousins, though they looked as if they could be siblings. Felix was just about the same height as Kai, just a quarter inch shorter than him in all honesty, but he didn't like others to know that. He wasn't as thick as Kai, either. Instead, he was thin and fragile looking with the same milky skin tone and curly mop of hair. Though, Felix's hair had a slight red tint to it. Not carrot-top red head, though, like a red-wood color.


Tonight was a big night. Kai's father was holding a talent show fundraiser for the local theatre group so that they could put on the annual rennesance festival. Interesting reason for a fundraiser, but with the town being so small, any groups were well loved and not to mention that the rennisance festival was one of the most favored ones of the year. Kai had to make sure that everything went smoothly. Why you ask? Well, he was part of that theatre group after all! Sure, he was a bartender during the weekdays, but on weekends, he was out doing plays and directing what he could. This fundraiser would make the difference in if he would get to play an active role in the festival this year, or not.

"Felix, Have you found that lamp that was missing it's globe yet?" Kai asked as he wandered back into the seating room where all tables were clothed in white with fancy globe lights on them.
"Felix?" Mordekai asked as he rubbed his hands on the towel that was hanging from his pockets and wandered further into the room.

He could hear odd hissing noises coming from behind a chair. Then Felix's head popped up.
"Shhhh. The leperchauns may hear you! I found their pot o' gold, ya' know!" Felix held up the globe, which was now filled with trinkets of garbage that he had found on the ground.
Mordekai started to laugh and lowered himself slightly.
"Those damn grass pixies, always trying to steal OUR gold," He hissed as he moved closer to Felix. Before long, they were having their own fun avoiding imaginary Pixies and leperchauns.


"Mordekai Brennan! Felix Rielly! What in the name of Ireland are you doing?!"
Felix and Kai stood up quickly as the familiar booming voice echoed in the hall.
In the door way, a slightly-taller-than-them man stood. His face was hard as stone and his hair was a shade of greying red-blonde.

"Uhh. Dad. Sorry. We just got... Distracted," Kai said strongly, but with some unease.
"I did not pay your guy's way from Ireland and Scotland all the way here just for you to "get distracted"! Now, quit yer' foolin' around and GET TO WORK!" the man snapped, his face going slightly red.

Kai looked at Felix, who offered an awkward smile, but he then wandered back to the other room to finish setting up the bar.

Why did his father always have to use that as an arguement? Sure, if it hadn't been for his father, he would still be sitting in his grandmother's home in Ireland, while Felix would still be a bread boy in Scotland, but that was no reason to be all... snappy.

Oh well. Kai looked at his watch and sighed heavily. He only had a short amount of time to finish setting up the bar...

[Knight]

Angora Hopps was technically her stage name, but by now, it was her name in all but the most official of circumstances. Born Angelica Marie Belle, Angie, as she had been called throughout her childhood, had been nicknamed Angora for the bold purple ears sprouting from her blonde head. The teenager was a shapeshifter, capable of assuming the form of a decently sized purple rabbit, and able to communicate with most small rodents. And she was a stage magician. It wasn't really anything too special, but with a combination of the swift movements that she had inherited from her rabbit side and the aid of a squirrel named Twitch, she could easily pull off most every trick.

Most people assumed that the fluffy ears were fake, just another part of her elaborate costume. But that couldn't be farther from the truth. They were truly her ears and they twitched slightly around the yellow top hat that she wore jauntily on her head. Her costume was mostly a bright purple that matched those bright ears, a long purple coat, with a light lavendar collared shirt beneath it, a light yellow skirt and an emerald bow tie. It was an . . . interesting outfit, but Angie thought she pulled it off. Her eyes, like her ears, were a bright purple, and all in all, she was far from average looking.

With her outfit added to the fact that there was a squirrel perched on her shoulder, Angie easily drew a few stares as she wandered along. The squirrel made a soft chattering noise, and one purple ear twitched towards the creature. "Look, there are people in the bar! LOOKLOOKLOOOK! LET'S GO SEE THEM!" Twitch often spoke like that, words tumbling off his tongue and stumbling over each other as they went.

Angie glanced in the direction of the bar, leaning smoothly against the wall as she listened to the two boys speak, conversing quietly with each other. When sharp ears picked up the sound of another approaching, Angie moved swiftly away, listening to the shouts distantly. That was less interesting than the playful games that the two had been playing earlier. And it was only when the shouting man was safely out of the way that Angie wandered back.

With Twitch chattering a mile a minute in her ears, Angie wandered back towards the room, mostly tuning out the squirrel's words. He was scared of the angry, shouting man, she gathered vaguely, but the prey animal was scared of many things, though he was a good deal bolder than many squirrels.

She wandered into the room without a word, reaching down into her pockets for a jingling coin. She always had change on her; at least about a dollar in various coins. They were useful in acts, and more than that, it was always good to have some change. You never knew when it could come in handy. Such as right then.

Waltzing into the bar like she owned the place, Angie tossed the coin up into the air with a bright smile. "I think the leprechauns missed something." With that, her hand flicked out to catch it, offering it to Twitch.

Sensing an act, the squirrel chittered excitedly, grabbing the coin with tiny hands and racing down Angie's side, onto the ground, and streaking up onto the top of the bar. There, he waited with a smug air, bushy tail twitching in the air.

"Who wants to help me catch the leprechaun?" Angie asked with a grin, taking a swift step in Twitch's direction. The squirrel chittered admonishingly and leaped away, bounding up onto a shelf a few feet above Angie's head. The magician giggled happily, but she waited now to see if the other two would get into the spirit. If they didn't... Well, she had other tools at her disposal, other places to go to kill time until her act was on at the talent show.

[Matsi]

Mordekai peeked at the girl as she approched, but didn't lift his head from his job. He was busy organizing his liqours so that he could easily get to them, just incase he had a rush. He doubted he would have any type of rush, this was a fundraiser after all, but if he wasn't prepared, his dad would have his rump hanging above the fireplace.

Felix on the otherhand walked into the bar room and stopped, his blue-green eyes inspected the young woman. He was curious, and wanted to know what she was up to. Of course, his eyes were soon on the furry little rodent that accompanied her. Was that really a squirrel?? That was really unusual, that was for sure.
Felix wandered towards the bar slightly, then stopped, just as the woman started to speak. He blinked a few times, his eyes glittering with excitement and desire. He wanted to go! His eyes shot to Kai, who shook his head.

"Sorry, Lass. Felix and I have to get this place set up for the show. Already escaped loosing out tails by the skin from our teeth once," Mordekai said with a small nod in her direction. His eyes shot to look at the squirrel for a second. Well trained little bugger, it was.

Kai looked at Felix, who frowned slightly and then sighed and picked up a few glasses and wandered to the bar. He looked defeated. Kai couldn't blame him. This was the first time in a long while that they had to keep themselves under control, and it was torture.

"Maybe afta' the show we can, lassy," Mordekai added as he looked towards the doorway for the larger man that was his father.

[Knight]

At the apology, Angie seemed to deflate almost immediately, pouting slightly as she eyed the two. She clucked her tongue absently, and almost immediately, Twitch bounded down from his perch and skittered across the floor to launch himself up her coat and perch back on her shoulder, dropping the quarter daintily into her outstretched hand. "Thank you, Twitch." Angie hummed as she tucked the coin away, letting it jingle pleasantly in her pocket for a moment as the squirrel chattered a reply. "You're welcomewelcomewelcome!" The hyperactive squirrel sang out, bushy tail twitching as he bounced on her shoulder.

But the magician only nodded as she twitched bright purple ears. "It's quite all right." She responded easily, "Maybe I can help set up?" She needed to kill time, after all. And Twitch seemed to like these two. The idea of being a leprechaun did seem to excite him. Of course, everything excited the hyperactive squirrel. Hmm.

"Do you guys have any green fabric around?" Angie tapped her chin, examining the squirrel on her shoulder. "I want to see if I can get Twitch a leprechaun costume. What do you think of that, Twitch? I bet it would look cute..." She trailed off consideringly as the squirrel replied enthusiastically, something along the lines of "YESYESYESYESYESYESYES!"

Good lord. Sometimes he could be a little stressful.

Angie rubbed her forehead for a moment, trying to stave off the headache that was lurking around the corner if Twitch kept 'shouting.'

She shook her head slightly after a moment, purple ears flicking about. "Anyways. The names Angora Hopps, magician extraordinaire." She gave a slight bow, barely stifling a giggle when Twitch nearly fell. "And the squirrel's just Twitch." She straightened to her full height, offering Twitch a hand to perch on. He grumbled irritably about how rude she was as he settled down there, tiny claws pricking at her skin as he examined the two humans.

"I'm here for the talent show, in case you couldn't tell."

[Matsi]

Mordekai snickered slightly as he jammed a bottle into it's new home. Twitch. Haha. What a fitting name for a squirrel. A lot better than some of those other mainstream names like Chip and Dale or Nutty or something like that. But it was still simple and... well... not overly odd that was for sure.

"It's quite alright, Ma'am. You are a guest here tonight! No need to help the hosts!" Felix said happily as he beamed back at Angora. Kai rolled his eyes slightly, but smiled all the same.
"Aye. Just sit back and relax. Leave the gettin' ready to us," Mordekai added and nodded.

Felix slid closer to Angora.
"You don't want to get under an Irish-man's foot. They tend to throw things when they get angry. Like Potatoes," He hummed with laughter then picked up a bucket from a table and wandered behind the bar to fill it with ice.

Mordekai started to laugh.
"At least I am no Kilt wearing Ninny! I like support between the knees, not the air!" Felix looked at Mordekai, slightly offended, then started laughing. The two of them giggled to themselves for a moment before Mordekai finally responded to Angora.
"Nah. No fabric. Just what the talents bring in is what we will have," He said, then vanished behind the bar as he fixed glasses.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Angora and Twitchy," Felix said as he stretched across the bar, and one could only assume, over Mordekai.

There was a muttering from behind the bar as Mordekai threatened Felix, but his words were muffled and soft. Then Felix flinched and jumped slightly.
"Ooh! Mordekai! Buy me dinner first you filthy lad!" He laughed as Mordekai shoved him away and stood up.
"Problematic scottsman," He muttered before turning to look at Angora.

"I am Mordekai Brennan, Bartender on this fine evening," He said as he put a wine glass on the top of the bar.
"And I am Felix Rielly. Bartender's assistant and one of the many waiters tonight,"

Mordekai lifted up a bottle and quickly and easily popped the cork out of it. It bubbled and hissed for a moment, but never spilled out of the long neck of the green bottle. Gently, Kai poured a bit into the crystaline glass. The liquid was a soft rosey color and bubbled softly.

"On the house, Miss Angora. It is a family special." Kai said as Felix grabbed the glass and moved to hand it to the Magician. A large smile was on the scottsman's face, as always.